The Runaway
by cybercat08
Summary: what if the Dursleys had decided to leave Harry at an orphanage when he was 9 years old? What if the Death eaters hadn't disbanded after Voldemort was defeated? What if Harry was lost in the muggle what world? what would've happened? on Hiatus.
1. The Disastrous Beginning & chapter 2

**A/N: This story has been put on hiatus. **

**Disclaimer:** this is JKR's world I am just borrowing it. Any characters you don't recognize are mine.

**The Disastrous Beginning**

It was a viciously cold night when the clouds that had been gathering across the skies of London final decided to let lose their assault on the earth. The pounding of the rain like a war drum mixed with the howls of the trees as they suffered a relentless onslaught from the wind. It seemed particularly fitting that the Death Eaters would choose this night to meet; As though the sky itself had conspired with them. They had decided to meet in a mansion outskirts of the London countryside, where they would be able to spot any enemies coming from miles away. Nobody had lived in the old house in decades and it was magically protected to keep anyone from apperating within a mile of it. It was the perfect for meetings such as this.

It had been almost six months since the Dark Lord's fall from power, and the trials and accusations were just starting to die down. Many of the men attending this meeting had been accused, but less than half of the true Death Eaters had been convicted, while the others had either hidden or been set free by the ministry.

Those Death Eaters who were still free and loyal were meeting here tonight. Lucius Malfoy was the first person to speak, bringing the meeting to order. "Comrades, we're here to discuss what should be done now that the Dark lord has been defeated." His voice rang out clearly in the dark room, cutting off the few whispers of conversation and commanding everyone's attention.

"How do we know that the Dark Lord has really lost his power?" Wormtail's distinctively whiny voice called out from across the room, and was met with nods of agreement.

"If he has not lost power then where is he?" McAllister countered as little arguments broke out between the Death Eaters who believed that Voldemort was truly gone and the ones who didn't.

"If he wasn't defeated he would be here tonight and the Potter boy would be dead!" Lucius yelled as he glared around at the room. "Even if the Dark Lord is still alive he has obviously lost power or he wouldn't have been defeated by a child." This statement caused all arguments to stop. Even Death Eaters in the deepest denial recognized the truth in Lucius' words.

"What we need to decide now is who will take his place." Lucius said as he looked around at the masked figures gathered around the room.

"I suppose you think you should be our new leader," Severus Snape said coldly as he stepped forward and glared at Malfoy.

"I was one of his most trusted servants." Malfoy said staring at the other man.

"Yes, you were _one _of his most trusted servants - how does that put you above all the others?" Snape sneered, soliciting nods of agreement all around.

"Who do you think should take over then?" Malfoy demanded. He did not liking the turn this conversation had taken.

"I think we need to come up with a definitive way of determining it." Snape said reasonably as he turned toward the other Death Eaters.

"A vote?" Avery called.

"No, it would be too easy to fix a vote in one persons favor." Malfoy said, knowing that he would probably lose if it came to that. Thinking fast he came up with a plan.

"I have the perfect idea, something even you couldn't disagree with Severus," Malfoy said as he moved to the middle of the room. "The best way to crown a new leader is to have him do what our old master failed to do," he paused for a second. "Kill Harry Potter." The room was silent for a moment as the words sunk in, but as soon as they did Malfoy started hearing words of approval.

"It sounds fair enough, the boy somehow managed to defeat the Dark Lord so we have to kill the boy to become leader and take his place." Goyle said.

"That is far too easy," Snape said loudly, "The boy got lucky when he defeated the Dark Lord! Killing him now would be like…killing a child! There is no challenge to that." Snape said as he looked around at his fellow Death Eaters. He was lucky to be wearing a mask because his face had gone completely pale underneath it.

"Even if it was just luck, the boy still defeated the Dark Lord, it is only fitting that whoever kills him get to take over." Crabbe said.

"Dumbledore won't have left the boy without protection either; to get to him we will also have to get past Dumbledore." Dolohov said from behind him

"We are in agreement then?" Avery asked the room. When no one objected Lucius stepped forward again.

"It is settled then!" Lucius said as he looked around "Whoever kills the boy will claim his rightful place as our new leader." He hadn't considered Dumbledore's protection but it didn't matter, he would find a way to kill Potter and claim his rightful place as the new Dark Lord.

_Eight years later_

During his years spent at the Dursleys house on Private Drive Harry Potter had fallen into a pattern of sorts, and this day started just like every other; with his aunt banging on his cupboard door telling him to get up. Harry sat up in bed careful not to hit his head on one of the beams above him, and was once again faced with the fact that he wouldn't be able to live in his cupboard for much longer. At nine-years-old, he had raven black hair that would never lay flat, bright emerald eyes and a lightning bolt scar on his forehead. He was scrawny for his age, but he was still at normal height despite the fact that he lived in a cupboard under the stairs.

As usual, he took a quick shower before heading to the kitchen to prepare breakfast for the Dursley's. While they ate he cleaned all the utensils he had used and when they were done eating he washed their dishes. Once morning chores were done Harry took what little food was left and went to eat out on the front porch while he waited for the school bus to arrive. He wasn't very popular with the other children but he still loved going to school, partly because it allowed him to escape from his life on private drive for a few hours, but mainly because Harry loved to learn.

"The bus is here." He called into the house as soon as he saw it turn the corner. Without waiting for a reply he ran down to the curb. He heard his aunt fussing over his cousin, Dudley, but he didn't look back. Petunia had made her feelings about Harry clear, many times over. He expected nothing from his relatives and they never surprised him.

As he stepped onto the bus the other children quickly moved to make sure 'The Potter Freak' wouldn't try to sit by them. Although Harry always tried to be friendly towards the other children none of them had ever really reciprocated. It was well known throughout the school that Dudley and his gang had it out for Harry, and anyone who associated with him would probably get beat up just as badly. Most of the other kids either avoided Harry or picked on him to try to fit in. He ended up sitting alone at the back of the bus, and stared out of the window without seeing anything. After years of being treated like a pariah he was used to the solitude, and now actually preferred it. Like his time in the cupboard under the stairs, he knew that life couldn't stay this way forever. Or at least he hoped.

The bus soon arrived at Rex Bell Elementary School and all the other kids quickly got off the bus to meet their friends out on the playground. Harry was one of the last people off the bus. He had never enjoyed the playground. Besides having no friends to play with, something about the chain linked fence that surrounded it made him feel trapped. This feeling wasn't helped by the fact that he was constantly being chased by Dudley and his friends. As he stepped off the bus he knew that today would be no exception. He saw Dudley and his gang looking around with dumb grins on their faces. He knew that it would only be a few seconds before they spotted him, so he decided to use this short head start wisely.

Harry quickly made his way through the clusters of students in front of him. If he moved quickly enough he might be able to avoid the chase altoget-

"There he is!" He heard one of Dudley's loyal goons shout behind him. He risked a quick glance and saw them all running towards him with dumb grins plastered across their faces.

Harry broke out into a run, cutting through the groups of students that had gathered. If there was one advantage he had it was his speed. Years of being chased after had made him one of the fastest boys in the school. It only took him 60 second's for him to run across the playground and reach the school building. He risked another glance behind him and saw that his pursuers had lagged behind, with Dudley at the tail end of the group. He didn't wait for them to catch up though. As soon as he reached the doors he ran inside.

Once he was safely in the building he quickly ducked into the nearest empty classroom, which the gang didn't think to check before they ran past. Once he was sure that the coast was clear Harry left the classroom and began wandering the halls. He knew it was much safer in here than outside. As he walked he began to think about how he was going to avoid the gang during recess and he didn't notice the warm feeling that slowly crawled up his spine and ended up walking right into his teacher, Ms. Hallowell.

"Harry?" she asked curiously, looking into his eyes with her probing gaze. "What are you doing in here?"

Startled out of his thoughts he didn't know what to say. He could usually tell when Ms. Hallowell was nearby, and avoid her at times like this. He had long since learned that he should never tell on other students, especially Dudley, since the Dursleys would blame him for getting their little angel in trouble. "I-I um, I was just…"

"Hiding." she said. It wasn't a question.

Harry just looked down at the ground silently. He had learned how to lie over the years out of necessity, and he was surprisingly good at it, but one of the few people Harry hated lying to was Ms. Hallowell. He had tried once or twice but she always seemed to know. Harry knew that there was something different about her since the first time he meet her. There was an odd kind of warmth that seemed to radiate from her. Harry didn't know what it meant but he could tell that she was a good person, and he had felt drawn to her.

"Come on," she said with a small smile, "You can help me set up for class." Harry gave a relieved sigh and shot her one of his rare smiles. Evangeline 'Eve' Hallowell was a very attractive woman in her early thirties with long brown hair and hazel eyes. She was a good teacher - one of the few teachers at Harry's school who actually seemed to care about her students - and for some reason she seemed to have taken a particular liking to Harry, much to the confusion of her colleagues who saw him as nothing special. After a few weeks of teaching him and getting to know him she had come to truly like him, because unlike the other children who were just there because their parents forced them to be, Harry seemed to genuinely enjoy learning.

As she had gotten to know Harry he began to open up to her a little, and what she learned had disturbed her. She knew Harry lived with his aunt, uncle, and cousin, and although he never told her what happened to his parents, she had found out that his relatives had told him they died in a car crash. She knew that Harry didn't like his family, and if his aunt and uncle were anything like his cousin Dudley, she could completely understand why. Dudley wasn't in her class but from the stories the other teachers had told her she couldn't believe that he and Harry were related. She knew that his cousin constantly picked on him, and the only reason that she didn't report it to the principal was because Harry so vehemently protested her saying anything when she told him what she planned on doing. His argument was that they had no proof that Dudley had done anything to him, and that the other children would think he told on Dudley and his friends, which would only make his life that much harder. She had agreed to keep her silence, mainly because she knew there was more to it than that, but until he told her what it was she would respect his wishes - even if she didn't like them. She was actually starting to think it was about time she met the elder Dursleys. They had only ever come to the school when something happened concerning Dudley.

When they got to the classroom Ms. Hallowell told Harry that another class would be joining them, and had him place the material they would need on every desk while she wrote the instructions for today's class on the whiteboard. When both tasks were completed she told him he could go play outside with the other children or he could stay and read until the bell rang. For Harry that was no choice at all. He grabbed a book from the bookshelf and sat in one of the bean bag chairs in the reading area.

As Harry quickly became engrossed in the book he didn't seem to notice his teachers curious gaze fall on him again. Ms. Hallowell had once again found her thoughts wandering to the little boy in front of her. He was probably the only child in the school who would rather sit quietly and read than go outside to play. He didn't seem particularly close to any of the other children, but for some reason that didn't seem to bother him. He was very independent, and she honestly didn't know if that was a good thing or a bad thing. It was good that he had learned to depend on himself but for someone so young it almost seemed wrong that he would be so disconnected. There was definitely more than meets the eye with the boy, you only had to spend 5 minutes with him to figure that out.

She pushed those thoughts aside when the bell rang and the other children started to pour into the classroom. Harry quickly stood up and put away the book before going over to his desk at the back of the class by the window. One of the few things Harry didn't like about his class was the other children. Mrs. Hallowell spent so much time explaining things for the other students that the class generally went excruciatingly slow. Harry understood that everyone didn't understand things as quickly as he did and he even tried to help the other kids when he could, but he couldn't help the resentment he felt about having to slow down to the their level.

After everyone was seated Ms. Hallowell announced to the class that there would an assembly after lunch, and another class would be joining them while their teacher helped set up for it. This was met by excited whispers from most students who hoped that it would be a class that one of their friends was in. Harry just stared out the window indifferently, having already heard this news. There was nobody he wanted to see, there were only people he wanted to avoid. A few minutes later the other class came in and Harry's hopes were immediately crushed as Dudley Dursley walked through the door. He felt his heart speed up when his cousin spotted him and started towards the empty desk beside him. There would be no way for Harry to get away. Maybe he could get someone else to sit next to him so Dudley would have to sit somewhere else. When Ms. Hallowell saw the frantic look in Harry's eyes and Dudley making his way toward him, she decided that it would be better to keep the two classes separate.

"I want everybody from Mr. Johnson's class to sit in the first 3 rows, and my class take the back three." Ms. Hallowell said from the front of the room. This was met with a few groans but everyone did as they were told. Dudley sent Harry a glare before going to sit in the third row. Harry breathed a sigh of relief as the students started filling up the back row. He glanced up at his teacher, sure that she had made this arrangement for his benefit, but she didn't seem to notice as she helped the other students find new seats.

Once everyone was seated Ms. Hallowell told the class they would be learning long division, which even Harry hated. As the lesson progressed Ms. Hallowell started calling up groups of students to answer questions on the board.

"Dudley," she called when she saw the boy wasn't paying attention to the lesson "Could you please come answer question five on the board?" she said.

Reluctantly Dudley got to his feet and made his way up to the whiteboard with four other kids. He quickly began to scribble numbers on the board to make it look like he knew what he was doing, but as the others quickly finished their problems Dudley was left standing at the board by himself. Ms. Hallowell walked up to the board and patiently tried to walk him through the problem. A boy from Harry's class, one of the few boys who knew how to do the math and wasn't afraid of Dudley and his gang, began to snicker as he watched Dudley scribble numbers on the board and erase them.

Dudley began to get frustrated and embarrassed as he stood at the board and wrote gibberish numbers. He obviously didn't know what he was doing but that horrible teacher wouldn't let him go sit down until he had finished the problem, and that idiot Gregory kept laughing at him! Ms. Hallowell tried to shush Greg as his snickers grew into all out laughter, but finally it was too much for Dudley to take.

"SHUT UP!" he screamed at the other boy.

"It's not my fault that you're too stupid to know what eighty-one divided by 9 is!" Greg said with a chuckle

"Gregory, that's enough." Ms. Hallowell said a stern voice that she hardly ever used with her students.

"Sorry, Ms. Hallowell." Greg said before shooting a smirk at Dudley when she turned her back. Dudley didn't have a chance to retaliate as Ms. Hallowell continued to help him with the problem. Once he finally figured out the answer she allowed him to go back to his seat. He would teach Greg and Potter a lesson at recess, he thought with an evil grin.

_**Recess**_

Harry felt the hairs on his arms stand up as he walked down the hall towards the cafeteria. He could sense that there was someone behind him, and unconsciously began to walk a little bit faster as he subtly turned and glanced around. In the nearly deserted hallway it was easy for him to spot two members of Dudley's gang maintaining a short distance behind him. He quickened his steps further, knowing that something must be going on. If he could just make it to the cafeteria he would be safe, but Dudley's goons must have realized what he was up to because they started running after him. Harry knew that he wouldn't make it to the cafeteria in time so he made a sharp left and went down the only hall in between him and the cafeteria, a hallway he knew would lead him outside.

Harry's heart was pounding in his ears as he raced down the hall and through the door, but he realized too late that he had been tricked into going this way. He was now almost completely surrounded as Dudley stepped out in front of him and the rest of his gang came through the door behind Harry. He forced himself to calm down and look at his surroundings for a route of escape. Figuring there was only one way out of this he quickly ran towards Dudley and the equipment room that was the only thing that was still between them. Dudley also began running forward, and it took Harry a minute to realize that his cousin didn't plan on stopping. He planned to tackle Harry when he reached him.

As they got closer to each other Harry realized that Dudley would reach the equipment room before he did. Reassessing the situation he knew that there would only be one thing between him and his cousin once Dudley passed the equipment room. It wouldn't protect him for long but at least Dudley wouldn't be able to tackle him. When he was close enough to it Harry didn't pause. He took a running leap towards the industrial sized trashcan. As he flew through the air he found himself wishing with all his might that he was somewhere safe, where Dudley's gang couldn't touch him. Harry felt an unexpected jolt and the shouts and laughs of Dudley and his gang was suddenly cut off.

He felt himself hit the ground and rolled his body into a tight ball guessing that he had missed the trashcan and that Dudley would be on him at any second. After staying that way for a few seconds longer it occurred to Harry that he could no longer hear anyone around him. He slowly opened his eyes and was shocked by what he saw. A sudden wave of relief washed over him; somehow he had managed to escape Dudley and his gang and now stood on the roof of his school! Walking over to the edge of the roof he looked down to see Dudley and his friends looking around in the trashcan for him, seemingly confused by his sudden disappearing act. As he looked down at his cousin nearly two stories below him he felt the relief drain out of him, to be replaced by dread as he remembered uncle Vernon's warnings. He told Harry that if he did anything weird at school he would be sent straight to an orphanage. While Harry didn't like his family and often wished he could get away from them the thought of being sent to live somewhere worse than Private Drive absolutely terrified him.

With that feeling of dread building inside him Harry slowly made his way over to the door he thought lead back down to the school. _What am I going to do! _Harry thought as he walked, _Uncle Vernon is going to go ballistic when he finds out about this!_ His thoughts swirled around like this for the rest of his recess period. He knew he wasn't going to be able to eat anything so he bypassed the crowded cafeteria for the now empty hallways. He was so lost in his thoughts that he didn't realize he was walking towards voices until he was about to round the corner and heard Dudley. Harry's mind immediately went into hyper drive. _How did they find me! _He wondered, _I've got to get out of here_. He was just about to start running again when Dudley's next words made him pause. Harry tiptoed to the corner and peaked around to confirm his suspicions, and there was Greg Callahan standing in front of Dudley and his group.

"Not so tough now are you Callahan?" Dudley taunted as his gang laughed menacingly behind him.

"I'm not the one who needs a bunch of other guys standing behind me to feel tough." Greg shot back.

"I don't need anyone to fight with me." Dudley said angrily.

"Sure you don't," Greg said with all the sarcasm a nine-year-old could manage, "If we fought right here, right now, all of them would jump in as soon as I started to whip your butt!"

"Fine, I'll prove it," Dudley turned to his friends and said, "No matter what happens don't jump in." Without warning he turned around and hit Greg in the face. Greg was thrown off balance by the unexpected move, but quickly regained his footing and punched Dudley in the jaw before hitting him in the gut. Dudley, who wasn't used to having people hit back, immediately doubled over in pain and curled up on the floor with tears in his eyes. Greg thought the fight was over and began to walk away. Dudley used this to his advantage as he got up and tackled Greg from behind. Dudley used his weight to hold Greg down while he hit him around the head.

Harry was just about to jump in and try to help Greg when he heard footsteps behind him. He wheeled around to see Ms. Hallowell walking towards him.

"Harry, there you are." She said as she walked towards him with a slightly worried look on her face. Her eyes darted around the hall as she walked towards him, before settling on his face. "What's wrong? What happened?" she asked as she saw how his pale face was. He opened his mouth to answer but no sound came out. That was when she heard the startled voices and retreating footsteps coming from around the corner, shooting Harry one last look she went to go investigate. She let out a shocked gasp as she walked around the corner and saw Greg Callahan on the floor bleeding. She raced over to check his injuries with Harry following behind her.

"Gregory?" she asked as the boy sat up. She could see that he had a black eye and a busted lip but he seemed to be fine otherwise.

"I'm alright." he said wincing.

"Do you think you can walk?" she asked ignoring what he had just said.

"Yes, I'm fine." He assured her once again as he stood up.

"Come on, both of you, I am bringing you to the nurse's office." She said as she led them both towards the main office. Greg looked at Harry; he hadn't noticed he was there before. When they arrived, the nurse forced Greg to sit with an ice pack on his eye as she checked for further injuries. After she was sure that he was alright, Ms. Hallowell led them both to the principal's office. Their principal, Mr. Smith, was a balding little man, who only seemed to own one ill-fitting suit, which he wore on a regular basis, and didn't seem to like children at all. Harry could never understand why a man who hated children would chose to work at a school, but he had never had the courage to call him on it. Mr. Smith actually seemed to enjoy punishing his students.

When they entered the office Mr. Smith told them to sit down and stared at them with his beady black eyes. Ms. Hallowell just stood in the back of the room by the door. She didn't like the way Mr. Smith treated the children either, or the way he blatant stared at her whenever she walked into a room. She had half a mind to…but no, if she did that there would be trouble and she couldn't leave this place. Not yet.

"So you two were fighting?" He asked "You know what the punishment for that is don't you?" He continued, not waiting for an answer.

"No sir-" Harry tried to explain but was cut off by the principal.

"Are you being smart with me boy?" Mr. Smith demanded as he glared at a shocked Harry, "Because I could always just have you expelled-" his voice suddenly cut out, but his lips were still moving. It was a very odd site.

"I think Harry was just trying to tell you that he wasn't the one fighting," Ms. Hallowell said disdainfully, apparently not noticing Mr. Smith's current state. He tried to say something but his voice still wouldn't come. There was slight look of panic in his eyes, and Harry was about to suggest they get the nurse when his voice came back just as abruptly as it had gone. Mr. Smith coughed once and rubbed his throat.

"Alright…well…" he said clearing his voice before getting back to what they had been talking about and pretending nothing had happened, "If Potter didn't fight then why is he here?" he asked, distractedly.

Harry barely heard the question as he thought about what he had just seen, _it was like his voice just disappeared, _Harry thought. _But how does somebody's voice just disappear? _He thought confused. He could see Greg was thinking about it as well.

"Harry saw what happened." Ms. Hallowell said calmly. Harry definitely heard that, as his head turned quickly to look at his teacher. He didn't know what to do, Greg had saw who hit him so he couldn't lie, but he also couldn't tell on Dudley.

"Dudley Dursley and his gang cornered me and we fought." Greg said as he looked up at the principal. Mr. Smith picked up his phone and told his secretary to get the Dursley boy in his office right now. The room fell into silence as they waited for Dudley to come. Harry was still trying to figure out how to get out of this without getting in more trouble with his family then he would already be in when he got home.

They all turned around when the door opened and Dudley came in. He also had a busted lip and walked with a slight limp. Harry caught Ms. Hallowell's eye and she saw the panicked look on his face. She hadn't realized that Dudley Dursley was the boy who had beaten Greg up. She knew that whatever happened next would not be pleasant for Harry.

Dudley glared at Greg but was surprised to see Harry sitting in the office as well.

"So Dursley, you thought you could fight with another student and you wouldn't get caught?" Mr. Smith yelled. Dudley flinched and looked up at Mr. Smith with the same innocent look he always gave his parents.

"No sir, I didn't beat him up he started hitting me!" Dudley said, as if he couldn't believe they thought he had started the fight.

"Then why did you run away when Ms. Hallowell came?" Greg asked angrily. Dudley didn't have an answer for that.

"Well why don't we just ask Potter what happened, since it seems he saw the whole thing!" Mr. Smith said as all eyes turned toward Harry. Dudley gave him a superior smirk, knowing that if Harry went against his story then he would be the one to get in trouble when they got home. Greg also looked at Harry, he knew that Dudley always picked on him so he would have no reason to try and protect his cousin. Everyone sat expectantly waiting for Harry to say something.

Harry still didn't know what to do; he knew he was going to be in trouble when he got home anyway, this would just decide how much trouble he would be in. The silence grew as Harry considered his options again, he could try lying but Greg knew that Dudley had been the one that hit him and Ms. Hallowell had seen him standing there, there was no way out of this without calling someone a liar. Harry felt a hand on his shoulder and looked up to see Ms. Hallowell kneeling next to his chair, and looking at him. He knew he wouldn't be able to lie to her while she looked him right in the eyes.

"Harry, just tell us what happened," she said in a soothing voice.

"Dudley threw the first punch," Harry said quietly as he looked down at his lap, knowing that he would regret this later. "But Greg hit him back twice, Dudley fell down and Greg started to walk away so Dudley got up and tackled him to the ground, sat on him, and started hitting him on the head. That was when you came and Dudley ran away." Harry said this all very quickly, hoping it wouldn't be so bad if he got it all out as quick as he could. When Harry looked back up Ms. Hallowell gave him a reassuring smile that usually helped, but didn't this time. He didn't dare look at anyone else in the room.

"He's lying," Dudley yelled furiously looking up at the principal to see if he had believed Harry's story. "He always lies about everything just to get me in trouble."

"He is not lying," Ms. Hallowell said as she pulled her gaze away from Harry and glared at Dudley.

"I think it is about time that I called your parents Dursley." Mr. Smith said as he picked up the phone and told his secretary to get him Dudley's parents on the phone. "You are in big trouble." He said menacingly.

"Potter is gonna to be in trouble when we get home." Dudley muttered under his breath too low for the principal to hear it, but Ms. Hallowell and Harry did. Ms. Hallowell sent another glare at Dudley, and was about to say something to him when his words really sunk in. She looked back at Harry and saw how pale he had become. _Harry is going to get in trouble when they go home? _She thought it made perfect sense. _That is why he never wants me to give Dudley detention or call home, when they get home Harry is the one who always gets in trouble!_ Everything started to click. Looking at Harry she saw real fear in his usually bright green eyes and knew. _It is _definitely_ need to meet the Durleys, _she thought angrily.

Chapter 2

**Welcome to St. Peters**

The Dursleys and the Callahan's were told to come in for an emergency parent conference at the end of the school day. Dudley and Greg were sent to the detention room, and were going to stay there until their parents came at two o'clock. Mr. Smith would have forced Harry to stay in there too, but when Ms. Hallowell protested Harry was allowed to go back to class for the rest of the day. Together they walked out of the office in silence. It was nearly lunch and Ms. Hallowell already had someone covering her class until the assembly.

As they walked down the hall Ms. Hallowell tried to restrain herself from asking questions until Harry had time to sort through all his thoughts. She knew that what he'd done had been difficult for him. After a minute or two she stopped walking and turned to Harry, who looked up at her with a slightly guarded expression.

"Would you like to go to lunch?" she asked suddenly, looking down at him "I already have someone bringing the class to the assembly. We can go get something to eat…and talk." she said the last part pointedly.

"Sure," Harry said, relieved that he wouldn't have to go back to class yet, and also realizing how hungry he was. "But I left my lunch box in the class room. I could just slip in and get it…" He said hesitantly. As much as he didn't want to answer Ms. Hallowell's question, he was even more reluctant to answer any questions from his classmates.

"Well I'm going to get something for you too, Harry." she said giving him an odd look. _He didn't really think I wouldn't buy him food, did he? Maybe the Dursleys never bought him anything when they bought Dudley food. Or maybe…no. _she thought firmly, _I'll just wait and ask him later. Speculating about it will just get make me angry and nothing good will come from that_.

They changed their course and started walking towards the double doors that led out of the school to the parking lot. Harry paused when they reached them. He wasn't supposed to go off school grounds.

"It's okay," Ms. Hallowell said as she noticed him hesitate and guessed what he was thinking, "You are allowed to go off campus if you're with a teacher." She said, "Trust me," she added when she saw him still looking unsure. He walked out of the school without a word or a glance back. If there was one person in his life that he trusted, it was Ms. Hallowell. She quickly led him to her car, which was a very sleek black Lexus. He couldn't believe that teachers at Rex Bell elementary made enough money to buy cars like this, and judging by the rest of the cars in the parking lot they obviously didn't. Harry looked at her questioningly for a moment, but she didn't offer an explanation, so he got in without saying a word.

As they drove out of the parking lot Ms. Hallowell turned on the radio and they both sat in a comfortable silence. Harry stared out the window still wondering what he would say when the questions started, _he knew that he wouldn't be able to lie but maybe he could just tell half truths? No, that wouldn't work, but did it really matter anyway? If Uncle Vernon really did what he was threatening to do then it didn't matter what he told her…_

"Harry?" Ms. Hallowell said, snapping him out of his thought and breaking the silence. Seeing that he still wasn't really ready to talk she decided to wait until they got to wherever they were going before she asked any difficult questions. "Where should we get the food from?" she asked instead

"Um, McDonalds?" Harry said looking up at her shyly. He wasn't used to people asking him what he wanted. This was a completely new experience for him; the Dursleys had never taken him with them to a restaurant or bought him anything.

"Are you sure?" Ms. Hallowell asked, "We can go anywhere you want." she said as they drove on.

"Yeah, I've always wanted to try it." Harry said it as if it were some big treat.

"You've never had McDonalds?" Ms. Hallowell asked incredulously. Harry immediately regretted saying anything, and looked away without replying. Ms. Hallowell knew not to push him on it and just kept driving as they lapsed back into silence.

They soon pulled up to the drive thru and got there food, before going over to a nearby park to eat. They walked over to one of the tables in the picnic area and Harry sat across from Ms. Hallowell. It became apparent that Harry had never had any fast food when he started eating. Ms. Hallowell had to laugh when she saw the look on his face when he tried his first fry; he practically inhaled the food after that. Ms. Hallowell stared at him for a moment before she started slowly.

"Harry…" she paused to consider her words, "What did Dudley mean when he said you would get in trouble when you get home?" she asked, deciding not to assume anything.

"They'll blame me," Harry said quietly, choosing to stare at a nearby tree rather than look at her, "Whenever Dudley gets in trouble and I'm involved they punish me for it, not him."

"Why do they blame you?" she asked gently.

"I don't know, I guess they think it was my fault…" Harry trailed off, he didn't know why his relatives always thought that it was his fault when Dudley got in trouble or when something weird happened. He didn't mean to be bad.

"You said they punish you…how do they punish you?" she asked slowly

"Usually they'll lock me in my…room without diner or something like that." Harry had almost said cupboard, that wasn't something he wanted to talk about yet.

"Do the Dursleys ever hit you or hurt you physically?" Ms. Hallowell asked cautiously trying to keep her voice level. The answer to this question would decide if she would do something stupid like taking Harry from those people right now or waiting to go through the proper channels first, but if they had hurt him she would - She stopped that train of thought there, and took a calming breath. That wouldn't help anyone.

"They don't hurt me, I mean Dudley does all the time but my aunt and uncle don't." Harry had seen the flash in Ms. Hallowell eyes and felt the warmth that always seemed to radiate from her grow hotter. He knew that it wouldn't be a good idea to tell her about the few times that his uncle had hit him. He had never seen Ms. Hallowell get really angry before and after seeing that look in her eyes he knew that he never wanted to.

"Ok." Ms. Hallowell said as she calmed herself down, she wouldn't do anything stupid but she was definitely going to get Harry away from those people as soon as possible. They sat in silence for a few minutes both thinking about what would happen next and preparing themselves for when they would meet with the Dursleys after school. After several more minutes of silence Ms. Hallowell told Harry that it was time for them to get back to the school. Lunch would be over soon and they both had to be there for the assembly.

As they got closer to the school Harry realized that this may be last time he ever got to really talk to Ms. Hallowell, especially if the Dursleys were really going to send him to an orphanage.

"Thank you." He said abruptly as they parked in the school parking lot.

"For what?" she asked

"For everything," Harry said quietly, "For being nice to me." Harry's eyes shone with tears as he looked up at her

"Harry you don't have to thank me…" she said softly as she pulled him into a hug, "One day, things are going to be very different for you." Harry wasn't sure what to do; the Dursleys had never hugged him, not even when he was a small child. For a few moments Harry was able to forget about the trouble that was coming and for once in his life felt safe and protected. They stayed that way until the bell that signaled the end of lunch rang, and they both had to get going. As they broke apart, Harry felt the dread return in full force as remembered everything that had and probably would happen. He was distracted for the rest of the day, and all too soon the final bell rang and the rest of the school filed out of the building as he and Ms. Hallowell made their way to the office. Harry could sense that one way or another change was coming.

The Dursleys arrived ten minutes after Harry and Ms. Hallowell and found them sitting in the waiting room. Harry looked startled when he saw his uncle and jumped to his feet as if he had been shocked.

"Boy, what have you done this time?" Vernon demanded as he took a menacing step towards Harry, who had reflexively taken a step back. Ms. Hallowell quickly stood and put a hand on his shoulder, she wasn't going to let these people touch him, or intimidate him.

"Mr. Dursley," she said sharply. Vernon hesitated as if he hadn't realized she was there, "I'm Evangeline Hallowell, Harry's teacher. As Mr. Smith told you, you are here because _Dudley_ got into a fight."

Vernon didn't get a chance to reply since the principal's door opened at that moment and Mr. and Mrs. Callahan walked out with Greg. The Callahan's completely ignored the Dursleys on their way out but Greg nodded at Harry and Mrs. Hallowell as he walked past. Mr. Smith then came to the door and asked them all to come in. Vernon and Petunia both put on fake smiles and went to shake hands with Mr. Smith. Just before he walked into the principal's office Vernon sent Harry a look that said 'I'll deal with you later'.

Harry and Ms. Hallowell quickly followed the Dursleys into the room. Petunia and Vernon were seated on either side of Dudley and Ms. Hallowell and Harry sat in the two chairs that were on Vernon's other side. Once everyone was settled Mr. Smith began.

"Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, I have called you here because your son was found fighting with another student in the hallway. The other boy told us that Dudley started the fight, Su-"

"Did anyone else see Dudley fighting, or are you just going on the word of the other boy?" Vernon asked, loudly speaking over Mr. Smith.

"Actually, your nephew saw the fight too," Mr. Smith said with a smirk "He told us that Dudley started the fight as well."

"He's lying dad," Dudley whined, "Potter and Callahan just want to get me in trouble." Petunia bought every word of it and wrapped her arms around Dudley, saying everything would be ok. Something she had never done for Harry. Vernon just sent another glare at Harry, who shrunk down in his seat.

"Mr. and Mrs. Dursley I can assure you that Harry was telling the truth." Ms. Hallowell said as she saw their reactions.

"That boy is a compulsive liar!" Vernon said, pointing a chubby finger at Harry. Ms. Hallowell opened her mouth to reply but Mr. Smith beat her to it.

"Even if that it is true, Dudley and Greg Callahan still got into a fight on school grounds." Mr. Smith raised his voice when he saw Vernon was about to interrupt again "That means they are both suspended for the rest of the week." The Dursleys tried to protest but Mr. Smith just said that the punishment was non-negotiable and told them that Dudley could come back to school next Tuesday. The Dursleys left quickly after that, telling Harry that if he didn't keep up he would be left behind. Harry knew that they were serious, but he still stopped to say goodbye to Ms. Hallowell before racing after them. He got to the car just in time.

Vernon yelled at him the whole drive home, while Dudley snickered from the seat next to him. When they finally arrived at Number 4 Private Drive his uncle quickly got out of the car and yanked open Harry's door, pulling by the arm into the house. Harry was barely able to keep his feet under him as Vernon pulled him along. Once everyone was inside and the door was closed Vernon started yelling at the top of his lungs, telling Harry how useless he was and that he wasn't going to be let out of his cupboard for a week! Dudley waited until his father had gotten himself more worked up than Harry had ever seen him before he interrupted.

"Dad," Dudley said giving Harry a vengeful look.

"What?" his father demanded, not appreciating the interruption.

"Today at recess, me and my friends were chasin' him," Dudley said it as if they had been including him in some fun game, "And he jumped into this trash can and when we looked inside he had disappeared!" Dudley exclaimed. Harry watched petrified, as his Uncle slowly turned toward him with fury in his eyes.

"You…you…" Vernon seemed at a loss for words as he quickly moved towards Harry who now had his back flat against the wall. Vernon seemed to decide that words wouldn't be enough, and raised his fist. Harry tried to make himself as small as possible as he put his arms up to try and protect himself from the blow he knew was coming. With his face turned towards the wall Harry didn't see what happened next. Vernon's fist swung down towards Harry and seemed to hit an invisible force field that knocked him clear across the room where he landed on his back, dazed.

"VERNON!" Petunia screamed as she and Dudley ran to his side. Harry stood up shakily and looked down at himself before looking up at his relatives, he wasn't sure what had happened but he knew that he was somehow responsible.

"I…I didn't mean to…" Harry said in a voice that was almost a whisper.

"That is it!" Vernon yelled as he got to his feet "You are out of here!"

"But Vernon," Petunia started apprehensively looking back and forth between her husband and nephew.

"No Petunia, the boy is going to the orphanage, where he should have gone to begin with." Vernon said angrily "Go get your things!" Harry ran to his cupboard with fear clearly written across his face. He had no idea what just happened. Despite Vernon's temper he almost never hit Harry, and the few times he did he had never been thrown across the room before. He could hear his aunt and uncle arguing in the living room but the words weren't getting through to him. His mind was in a sort of numbed shock as he slowly emptied all of his school books out of his backpack and began to put his few possessions inside. Just the thought of being sent to live in an orphanage had always sent him into a slight panic, but now that it was actually happening Harry was surprised to find his mind had gone entirely blank. When he heard a sharp knocking at the front door he responded to it without thinking, as though his uncle had once again yelled at him to answer it.

He didn't notice that his aunt and uncle had stopped arguing until he had his hand on the door handle and heard them both walk out into the hallway behind him. He opened the door before they could say anything and he heard them both let out a sigh of relief when they saw it was simply one of their neighbors from down the street, as though they had expected someone else.

Mr. Herbert stared down at Harry for a moment before addressing his aunt and uncle, "Sorry to bother you. Have any of you seen my cat, Rudy, around?" he asked in a friendly tone.

"No, we haven't." Vernon answered for all of them, not trying to hide his bad mode. This wasn't the first time Mr. Herbert had come around looking for his cat, and the man always seemed to have the worst timing. Without waiting for the man to reply Vernon marched forward and slammed the door in face.

Harry could hear him muttering under his breath as he turned back around and stomped past his wife. Petunia quickly followed her husband and Harry was once again left in the hallway by himself. It only took him twenty minutes to have everything he owned packed and ready to go. It took Vernon another two hours before the pain in his back eased enough for him to drive Harry to St. Peters orphanage in London. When they got there Vernon went to the receptionist and told her why he was there, and a few minutes later a stern looking woman in her mid 40's came out to greet them. Harry didn't remember her name but he heard her say that she ran the orphanage. After that she asked Harry to wait in the reception area while she and Vernon went to talk, and after two hours Harry could hear raised voices coming from the office, but he didn't pay attention, he was too preoccupied with his own thoughts. Harry didn't know how to feel, after everything his relatives had put him through over the years he was kind of relieved that it was over now. He would never have to go back to the Dursley's again, but that relief was washed away by the overwhelming fear that now he had to face something potentially worse.

Harry woke up the next morning in a bed that wasn't his own, and couldn't remember how he came to be there. He looked around the room but it gave him no indication of where he might be. The hard pad he was laying (it couldn't really be counted as a bed) looked like something out of the school nurses office. There was a small window, but no other furniture or decorations in the room. Harry focused on trying to remember how he had gotten here but he drew a blank, so he tried to recall the last thing he remembered from yesterday, and with a sudden rush everything came back to him. _School, Dudley and his gang had been chasing him and he somehow wound up on the school roof, Dudley's fight with Greg, lunch with Ms. Hallowell, the meeting with the Dursleys in the principal's office, Uncle Vernon trying to hit him and finally being sent to the orphanage_…_that's where I must be now, _Harry thought as he looked around again. He slowly sat up in bed and saw that he still wore his clothes from yesterday, but his shoes were on the floor beside the pad-bed.

He stood up, went over to the window and saw a bunch of younger children running around and playing. It wasn't bad so far, but Harry was still felt anxious as he put on his shoes and walked out of the room. A buzzer went off when he opened his door and an older woman came out from the office across the hall and introduced herself.

"Hello, Harry, I'm Mrs. Sanders. Welcome to St. Peters orphanage. How are you feeling?" she asked. Mrs. Sanders was middle aged with dark brown eyes and shoulder length hair. She was the women Uncle Vernon had spoken to the day before, Harry remembered. He simply shrugged in reply to her question; he honestly didn't know how he should be feeling right now.

"Your uncle left you in the care of St. Peters Orphanage last night, so you will be staying here until we can find you another guardian." Mrs. Sander said a kind but firm tone. That was the impression that Harry got from her, kind but strict, which he was okay with.

"I'll give you a quick tour, and then you can go to the mess hall and have breakfast with the others." Mrs. Sanders said giving him an appraising look. Harry knew that he had been ought to say something.

"That sounds great," there wasn't much enthusiasm in his voice, but Mrs. Sanders didn't question it. After all, he had just been willingly left at an orphanage by his only relatives.

She led Harry through the building pointing out the recreation room that had a pool table, an ancient looking TV and a dart board and a bunch of couches, this seemed like the place where all the older kids hung out.

"The boy's rooms are on the first floor the girls rooms are on the second. If you are visiting a girl in her room the door stays open the whole time, the same goes for girls visiting you, boys aren't allowed on the girl's floor after 8:00." She said all of this in a stern tone that just reinforced Harry's first impression of her. She then showed him the cafeteria and told him that everyone took turns on cafeteria duty. There were a few kids mostly in school uniforms still having breakfast. Mrs. Sanders pointed everything out.

"The hot food is served in that line," she said pointing to where kids were moving with trays and being served by other kids "The cereal and juice is over there," she said pointing to a table near the end of the line "You can help yourself to whatever you want."

"Cool." Harry said, once again feeling the lull in conversation. It didn't feel 'cool' though, and a room full of strange noisy kids was intimidating.

"Once you've had something to eat come see me in my office." She said as she left. Harry just stood there for a minute and looked around at the other kids wondering what life would be like from now on. He grabbed one of the trays and a bowl and got some cereal for breakfast. It was strange not having to serve others. He sat alone as he ate, just like he had done at his old school. The thought of school reminded him of Ms. Hallowell, _what would she think when he didn't show up for school today? Would she even notice? And what would she do when she found out that Harry had been sent to an orphanage? What could she do? _Harry was filled with sadness when he fully realized that he would never see Ms. Hallowell again. This was going to be his home from now on.

After he had eaten breakfast Mrs. Sanders brought him upstairs to see his new room. It wasn't very big, but after spending most of his life in a cupboard he wasn't about to complain. There were two beds so Harry guessed that he would have a roommate. There was a dresser beside both beds with a lamp on top. There was a wardrobe and a small TV in the corner. There was also a single window facing the playground on the side of the orphanage, but the branches of a huge tree stood directly outside blocking most the outside world from view. There were also a few things littered around the room that Harry assumed belonged to his new roommate; clothes, magazines, papers and even a game system.

"This is where you'll be staying," Mrs. Sanders said from the doorway as Harry walked around the room. "Your roommates name is Stanly Wayne, if you have any trouble come find me or one of the counselors." She said before leaving.

Harry walked over to his new bed and sat down;_ maybe this won't be so bad, _Harry thought as he looked around once more. He grabbed the bag of clothes that he'd brought with him and slipped it under his bed without unpacking anything, _there would be time for that later, _he thought as he lay down on his bed and stared up at the ceiling. At least he would no longer have to worry about hitting his head in the morning.

Harry looked up as the door burst open and a tall boy around his age with blond hair came running in holding something in his arms that Harry couldn't quite see. He quickly tried to shut the door but before he could close it all the way an older boy came and ripped it open again. _What is going on? _Harry thought as he sat up on his bed and looked at the two boys. The blond boy started to back away from the older boy, but the older boy caught him and hit him a few times in the stomach.

"Here, take it!" The blond boy cried as the older one ripped what looked like a book from his hands.

"Touch my stuff again, and I'll smash your face in," the older boy said hitting the blond again before walking out of the room without a glance at Harry. The blonde boy was still sitting on the floor where he had fallen when the older boy had hit him. Harry wasn't sure what to do.

"Are you alright?" He asked the boy, his head immediately shot up to look at Harry; it seemed he hadn't even noticed that Harry was there.

"I'm fine," the boy said trying to act tough but wincing as he stood, "You must be my new roommate. I'm Stan." he said as he walked over to his bed and sat down.

"Harry. What was that about?" he asked

"Payback. He was reading romance novels." Stan said with a chuckle. "I may have shown it to some of his friends." he rubbed one of the bruise that was starting to form. Harry and Stan talked for a while which was a fairly new experience for Harry. It hadn't occurred to him that the kids here wouldn't automatically hate him, but it was a nice change. Stan challenged Harry to one of the shooting games on his Nintendo and they played until lunch, Stan had beat Harry five to two, but Harry still felt he had done good considering the fact that he had never been allowed to play video games.

At lunchtime they only stopped into the cafeteria pick up sandwiches and then left. When Harry asked where they were going Stan told him that they were going on another tour.

"But Mrs. Sanders already gave me a tour." Harry said as he trailed behind Stan.

"Mrs. Sanders showed you the basics," Stan explained, "I'm going to show you everything else. Come on."

Harry followed obediently, Stan had been at the orphanage for the past two years so he knew all the tricks, all the doors that were supposed to be locked but weren't, where the best places to hide were and most importantly who to avoid. By the time they were done Harry felt that he knew the place well.

That night as he lay down to go to sleep and wished Stan goodnight he felt that he could really get used to being here. Harry thought about the Dursleys and how they had treated him and realized that he had never really had a home there, this was a home. His home.

Harry soon drifted off to sleep, feeling better than he had in a very long time.

Despite his good mood Harry tossed and turned all night. He woke up around midnight for seemingly no reason at all, and he couldn't go back to sleep so he got out of bed and walked over to the window to get some fresh air. As Harry stood there with the window open for a few minutes some movements caught his eye. Branches blocked his view of the ground so he almost missed it, at first he thought it was just some of the other kids sneaking in after curfew, but another glimpse of the moving figures told him that they weren't kids. Harry had to adjust his view, but he did manage to get a better look at them he felt his blood run cold with unexplained terror. He saw the six people wearing black robes and ghoulish masks making their way toward the doors of the orphanage.

Since you took the time to read it, take a few seconds to review too.


	2. Alone

**Disclaimer: Anything you don't recognize belongs to me...everything else belongs to JK**

**A/N: I would really love to hear what you all think of it so please read and review. I would especially like to hear what you think of the OC's, And like I said in the last chapter, this story is also posted over at and being updated much more frequently over there.**

**Alone**

Harry tried to get a better look at the masked people, but they had moved out of site. He stood still for a moment and thought about what he had just seen. _Who were they? _He wondered, _why are they here?_ He didn't know who they were, but all his instincts were screaming at him that he need to get away from them. He quickly moved over to Stan's bed and shook him awake.

"Hmm…go away…" Stan gave an annoyed groan as Harry continued to shake him.

"What?" He demanded when he realized that Harry wasn't going to stop.

"Something's going on." Harry said urgently

"What do you mean '_something's going on_'?" Stan said as he sat up and looked at Harry through blurry eyes, "What is it?"

"I'm not sure," Harry said and then quickly explained what he had seen.

"It was probably just some other kids. Go back to sleep." Stan said as he lay back down.

"Those people weren't kids!" Harry was sure of it. "I can't explain it but I know something bad is about to happen!"

Stan sighed; he knew that Harry wouldn't let him go back to sleep until he knew for sure what was going on.

"Come on," he threw off his covers, "Put on your shoes."

"Where are we going?" Harry asked apprehensively as he slipped on his shoes and watched Stan do the same.

"We're going downstairs to see who these people are." Stan said in a bored tone as he and Harry opened the door and went down the hall. As they reached the landing Stan signaled for Harry to keep quiet and started to creep down the stairs. The last thing they needed was to get caught spying on older kids in the middle of the night. They could hear voices by the time they reached the bottom of the stairs. They couldn't make out what was being said, but they could both tell that the people speaking were adults. Harry could feel a coldness running up his spine as they tiptoed down the hall that led to the reception area and peaked through the door that was cracked open.

The reception room was filled with a dozen people all wearing masks and holding wooden sticks in their hands. They were standing in a circle around a person that was lying on the floor and jerking. Harry couldn't be sure who it was because one of the masked people was standing in the way, but he had a pretty good idea. The person who had been blocking his view moved toward the person on the floor and Harry's fears were confirmed, it was Mrs. Sanders.

It looked like she was having a seizure. Harry could tell she was in pain because there were tears streaked down her face and her mouth was wide open as if she were screaming, but there was no sound coming out. Harry and Stan stood frozen in the hallway unable to look away from the horrifying scene.

"Now will you tell us where the boy is?" The man asked, as he stared down at her. He pointed the stick at her and the pain seemed to lessen, but she didn't stop shaking. Mrs. Sanders mouth was moving but there were still no words coming out.

"I'm sorry, what was that?" He asked in a mocking tone as he bent closer. She tried to talk again but there were still no words until the man waved the stick at her. It was as if he'd had her on mute and he just turned the volume back on. She gasped in pain as she looked around wildly her body still shaking.

"Where is he?" the man demanded impatiently.

"Upstairs, on the first floor," she said weakly. "Room 47."

"Now that wasn't so hard was it?" he asked in the same sarcastic tone. Before she could do or say anything else, he raised the stick, said something that sounded like 'abracadabra' and a bright green light shot out, and hit her in the chest. Mrs. Sanders went completely still, all her trembling stopped and her head turned towards Harry and Stan, her wide glazed over eyes stared at them lifelessly. Stan and Harry both knew she was dead.

They glanced at each other for a moment and Harry saw out of the corner of his eye that the masked people all had a dark glow around them. He didn't have time to process what that might mean as he and Stan both turned and ran as quietly as they could back the way they came. Harry felt the chill that had crept up his spine slowly lessen as he moved further away from the masked people. He could still hear them in the reception area talking. The man who seemed to be the leader told the others to kill everyone else but leave the boy to him. Harry had already realized they were after him, Ms. Sanders had given them his room number, _why else would they show up right after I arrived?_ He thought as he and Stan ran. When they reached the end of the hall, Harry turned to go towards a door that would lead them outside while Stan started up the stairs toward their room.

"Wait! Where are you going?" Harry whispered when he saw Stan going in the opposite direction.

"I have to go get something," Stan whispered back, "I'll meet you out there."

"They'll be up there in a few seconds, we have to go!" Harry said urgently as Stan continued up the stairs.

"I'll be fine, just go!" Stan said as he disappeared upstairs. Harry stood in the hallway for a second unsure what to do. He knew that those people would be walking into the hallway any second, but he couldn't bring himself to just leave Stan. With a sigh Harry raced up the stairs after his new friend and heard the door to the reception area open just as he reached the top of the stairs. He ran down the hall to their room knowing that they were going to have to find another way out of the orphanage. He stopped in the middle of the hall and pulled the fire alarm. At least now the others kids wouldn't be taken by surprise. When he finally reached his room, the corridor was already starting to fill with people. Harry opened the door and saw Stan rummaging in his dresser for something.

"What are you looking for?" Harry asked, "We have to go!"

"A necklace, my parents gave it to me before the accident." Stan said anxiously "It's the only thing I have left." he said as he continued to rummage through his dresser frantically. Before Harry could reply, he heard screams coming from the hall.

"Here it is!" Stan said gladly, he didn't know what he would have done if he couldn't find it.

"Good," Harry said distractedly as he thought, they couldn't go through the hall with those people out there so they would need to find another way out. His eyes wandered around the room and quickly fell on the window, they would have to jump. It was the only way they would get out alive. He went to the window and looked out, it was a long way down, but if they could just reach the tree they could climb down that. "We have to go. There's no way we'll make it through the hallway." He said as he opened the window and looked to see how far the tree was from their room. It was actually a bit further than he had thought when he first arrived; the long thin branches just made it look closer.

"Wait…you want me to jump out the window!" Stan asked incredulously. "No way!" he said as he started to walk toward the door, but immediately stopped when heard the screaming getting closer to their room.

"This is the only way," Harry said as he went to grab his bag from under the bed, suddenly glad that he hadn't unpacked. He opened the window as wide as it would go and climbed out onto the windowsill, He dropped his things and watched them fall away to the ground. It occurred to him that he might miss the tree and if the fall didn't kill him those people would. He knew it was better not to think about it, if this were a playground or the gym at Rex Bell this jump would be child's play, it was only the circumstances and height of the jump that made it terrifying. _Don't think about it. Do it. _Harry thought and then launched himself into the air.

Harry had miscalculated the jump. He missed the branch he had been aiming for by an inch and felt himself start to fall. He felt the branches whip past him and cut into his skin. It was only by luck that he managed to grab one of the bigger branches as he fell. He hung there for a moment to catch his breath; he could feel his heart pounding wildly in his chest as he pulled himself up onto the branch. _That could have ended very badly, _he thought as he looked down. Once he had a good grip on the tree getting down was easy. He gave a relieved sigh as he dropped the last few feet and landed safely on the ground, _that wasn't so bad, _he thought. He looked back up to see where Stan was and saw that he hadn't jumped yet, he stood frozen at the window.

"Stan, come on!" Harry yelled up to him, "Once you get to the tree it's easy." But Stan still didn't move either way.

"Stan, they'll be up there any second, you have to move!" Harry said urgently to his friend. The thought of those people seemed to snap Stan out of his stupor.

"Go on Harry, I'm gonna find another way down." He said before moving away from the window and out of Harry's site.

"Stan! There is no time!" Harry yelled hoping his friend could still hear him. There was a loud bang from inside the room and then voices Harry couldn't make out. They had finally found his room. Harry heard Stan scream and opened his mouth to call out to the masked people, but before he could make a sound the window to his room lit up with a bright green light, and Stan's screams went silent. Stan was dead.

Harry stood with his mouth open unable to move for what seemed like hours, but was actually just a few seconds. He probably would have stayed like that for longer if he hadn't heard more another piercing scream come from inside the orphanage.

Harry turned around and ran as fast as he could away from the orphanage. He used the momentum from his running to hop the fence that surrounded the orphanage and raced on without missing a step. As he raced down the streets he could swear he heard people following him but after running for an hour straight he finally collapsed on the side walk and gasped for air, waiting for someone to come grab him. After ten minutes when he was able to move again and no one had tried to take him back to those people he slowly sat up and looked around. He had no idea where he was. He had never been to this part of London and he wasn't sure what to do now. It wasn't a bad neighborhood, there were a bunch of shops and very nice houses around and each of them looked different unlike Private Drive where every house looked exactly the same.

Harry walked around aimlessly until he found a park and went to sit on the swings. He sat there with tears trailing down his face, rocking back and forth for hours thinking about everything that happened to bring him here, and wondering what would happen to him next. He realized that he had left his bag on the ground outside the orphanage. All he had left in the world were the clothes on his back. He didn't know where he would stay or what he would eat but he knew he wasn't going to stay in another orphanage. He was used to having to take of himself, and he was sure that he could do it now. He barely noticed the hours slipping by until he was finally drawn out of his thoughts by the sound of a car starting and he saw that the sun was already starting to rise.

Harry stood up dried his face and walked for another hour until all the shops started opening and people began their day, completely unaware of what had happened last night. Harry walked aimlessly for a bit longer until he smelt something sweet in the air that alerted him to how hungry he was. He hadn't eaten or really slept in hours and he was now exhausted, he needed to refuel soon. He followed the smell back to a small bakery that already had plenty of customers. He slipped in unnoticed and looked around, there were a few tables inside but most of them were out in front of the store. Harry slowly went over to a counter where a woman who looked to be in her early fifties was offering free samples off some of their pastries. Harry waited until she was done talking to another customer before asking.

"Excuse me," he said politely, "May I try one of your samples please?" He asked using all his manners and the most innocent voice he could come up with, hoping this woman wouldn't ask where his parents were.

"Sure honey," she said kindly, "Here you go," and handed him one of the warm cinnamon rolls. She watched as he took a bite out of it, and saw the pleased look spread across his face. "Good isn't it?" she said with a smile. Harry just nodded mutely before saying thank you and walking away from the counter. The Dursleys had never let him have sweets. In fact he had never had a cinnamon roll until Ms. Halliwell gave him one as a reward for helping her set up for class one day when he had been hiding from Dudley and his gang. Thinking back to it, the whole incident seemed like a lifetime ago when it was really only a few months. _Might as well be a lifetime, _Harry thought. He savored every bite and when he was done, he walked out of the bakery with more energy than he had coming in. Harry noticed a mall a few blocks down and started walking toward it; he figured it would be the perfect place for someone who wanted to disappear, since no one would notice a boy hanging out at a crowded mall, at least not for a while.

Harry looked at all the shops he passed, going into any that really caught his attention. He saw a large bookstore and went in, this was the type of place where people could sit and read for hours without being disturbed, and Harry hoped no one would question his being here. It was the perfect place for him to think and come up with a plan. Harry found a comfortable spot in the back of the store where people wouldn't notice him and sat down. _Ok,_ he thought, _I need a plan, so start with the most important things. First I need a place to sleep, somewhere nobody would notice me coming or going… _his mind drew a blank. He knew nothing about his new surroundings, and the only place he could think of to stay at was the park where he had sat all night, but someone would probably notice him after a while. _Maybe if I knew this area better this would be easier, _he thought and had an idea. He got up and went to find the reference section. _A map would definitely help, _he thought as he looked around until he finally found a fold up pocket sized map of London. He opened it and found the area he was in, after studying the map for a few hours the best he could come up with was a newly built apartment complex a few blocks away from the park. _Maybe I'll be able to find an abandoned apartment to sleep in. At least then I'll be off the streets. _He decided he would check it out that night, when there were less people around.

He folded up the map he had been using and stood up. He realized how hungry he was and looked up at the clock on the wall. It was already lunchtime. Harry walked down to the food court and looked around. It was overcrowded with every table occupied. He was able to squeeze through the crowds without any trouble or unwanted attention because of his small size. He walked around a bit until he found a burger joint that was running so many orders that they were just calling out the numbers that they had given to their customers and then leaving the food on the counter unattended. Harry cautiously slipped up to the counter grabbed one of the meals and inconspicuously walked out of the food court, he didn't look back until he was back at his park.

There were a few younger children playing around on the jungle gym and the swings, so Harry went to eat at one of the picnic benches. He began to eat the burger and fries he found in the bag and watched the children play. He tried to remember a time when he had been that safe and carefree but couldn't. For as long as he could remember, Harry had always had some responsibility or burden to bear.

Harry knew he was only trying to distract himself from thinking about the last time he had sat at a park and ate fast food. He knew that thinking about Mrs. Halliwell or anyone else from his past wouldn't help him, but it was hard to suppress the once happy memory and the misery they now caused.

Another thing fighting for his attention was the guilt from stealing. It was the first time he had ever really stolen anything, but he knew that it wouldn't be the last. He now faced the grim prospect of having to steal on a daily bases just to survive, and while part of him was still feeling bad about what he had done a more analytical part of him was already starting to make plans. He sat in the park for the rest of the day, thinking about where he might be able to get food with and without stealing, and trying to come up with other places he could stay in case he couldn't find an abandoned apartment. _I could always come back here if I have to, _Harry thought, but he hoped he wouldn't.

The streetlights were just starting to come on as he left the now empty park. It seemed even the best neighborhoods were creepy at night as more and more unsavory people started to come out. The further away from the park he got the less safe he felt. He just kept his head down and didn't make eye contact with anyone, and thought he should be fine. He started walking quicker when he heard the police car sirens behind him getting closer. He turned into an alley to avoid being seen by the cops. He didn't want to have to explain what a boy his age was doing outside so late. He expected the sirens to go past him and was surprised when he heard them cut off and then car doors slamming, _maybe the police really are after me,_ he thought as he walked further into the alley, hoping the cops would just go past. He only made it a few feet before he felt someone bump into him.

Harry turned around and saw it was a teenage girl. She seemed to be out of breath, and they both froze for a second in shock, but the approaching footsteps snapped her out of it first. She looked down the alley as if considering whether or not she could make it down there before they came. She seemed to decide against that and instead went to hide behind a nearby dumpster. Harry was about to try to hide too, but he knew he didn't have time, so he pretended to just be walking out of the alley on his way home instead. The officers reached the end of the alley before he did and shined a bright flashlight in his face. He put on a surprised face and raised his empty hands in the air when he saw it was the police.

"Freeze!" the man with the flashlight demanded as his partner took a step closer.

"It's just a little boy, Peterson." The man with the flashlight lowered it a bit so it wouldn't be in Harry's eyes while his partner asked, "Did you see a teenage girl run past here?"

Harry knew that the right thing to do would be to tell them where she was hiding, but something stopped him. It might have been the years at Rex Bell Elementary, where he had learned that he should never tell on others, or it might have been because he was able to sympathize with her, but for whatever reason he simply said, "She ran past, down that way." He pointed down the alley away from where she was hiding.

"Thanks kid." One of them said as they both took off down the alley.

Harry waited until they had both disappeared around the corner before telling the girl it was safe to come out. She gracefully slipped out of her hiding space and Harry got his first good look at her. She was an attractive girl, about fourteen with shoulder length hair and sharp brown eyes; she looked like she had seen more than anyone her age should.

She looked at Harry with her sharp eyes studying him, he knew that she didn't miss a thing from his scuffed up old shoes and wrinkled oversized clothes to his messy hair. Harry started feeling self conscious and uncomfortable but he didn't move and she didn't look away. She seemed to be making an important decision.

"How long?" she asked suddenly, as if they were already in the middle of a conversation.

"What?" he asked confused.

"How long have you been on the streets?" she asked, Harry didn't bother trying to deny it and he didn't ask how she knew.

"Since last night." Harry said looking down at the ground,

"Where are you staying?" She asked in the same neutral tone.

He didn't know why he was answering this girls questions, but he really had nothing to lose "I don't know," he said, "I was going to see if I could find an abandoned apartment but if not I'll just stay at the park down the street."

She nodded and then said "Be at the park at this time next week, over by the playground." she gave him one last look and then walked off.

Harry wasn't sure what had just happened; he walked back to the park his idea about finding somewhere else completely forgotten. _Why does she want me to be at the park next week? And who was she for that matter? _That thought kept repeating in his head as he sat down near a tree on the playground and fell asleep.

* * *

_One week later_

Harry had tried to find an abandoned apartment the day after his meeting with the girl in the alley. It had worked for two nights before the management discovered him, and he narrowly avoided being sent to the police. After that, he had given up the apartment idea and gone back to the park.

Since then Harry had created a schedule for himself. He would sleep in the park and then go down to the mall and try whatever free samples the stores had, while trying to remain unnoticed. Harry knew that this couldn't last much longer, the women at the bakery knew him on site and he sensed that she was starting to get suspicious already, even though he tried to avoid going to the same places as much as possible. Harry had also started counting down the days until he was supposed to meet the girl in the park. He didn't know what he was expecting to happen, but right now it was the only thing he had to look forward to.

That night he sat on one of the park benches waiting for someone to show up or something to happen. The whole day had seemed to go by extremely slow, as he repeated the same process as he did one week ago. He had gone back to the bookstore and tried to read but his mind kept wandering. He was so distracted at lunch that he nearly got caught stealing another meal. By the time night came he was very anxious, but it seemed as if the girl wasn't coming. He had sat on that bench since the street lamps came on and now he guessed that it was around midnight and still no one had shown up. He was just about to go find somewhere to sleep when she spoke.

"The apartment thing didn't work out then?" It wasn't really a question. Harry jumped when he heard her voice and looked around to see her standing right next to him, along with a guy that he had never seen before. He had no idea how they had gotten so close without him noticing.

He finally got the chance to ask the question that had been bugging him all week, "Who are you?"

"I'm Max, this is Con." She said gesturing to her friend. He still hadn't said a word but he seemed to be examining Harry just as closely as Max had.

"I'm Harry." He said, but neither of them looked very interested in knowing.

"Max told me that you helped her out," Con spoke for the first time. He looked about 16 with brown hair the same color as the girls. Harry could tell that Con and Max were related; they both had very athletic bodies and the same sharp brown eyes. "She also told me you're new out here…so we're here to make you an offer. You can stay with us and our friends. We'll teach you how to survive out here."

Harry took a moment to process that and then asked, "Why would you do that? Why would you help me?"

"Because you helped my sister…we owe you." He looked Harry up and down again, "Besides you don't look like you'll last very long out here by yourself. We'll try to teach you how to get by, but you have to be ready to learn. You can't count on people giving you things; you have to take what you need."

"I know how to get things." Harry said defensively,

"I'm sure you do. But pretty soon you're gonna get caught, then what will you do?" he asked in a patronizing tone, "Look, we're offering a place to stay and help if you need it; we're not going to force you to take it."

"Is this like a gang?" Harry asked uncomfortably. This 'offer' sounded a bit sketchy.

"No. At least, not in the way you're thinking. It's a group of people in similar situations helping each other to survive. We gotta stick together. If no one else is going to look out for us we can look out for each other." Max said, deciding to rejoin the conversation.

"We don't force people to do anything. If you join we won't make you stay, you can leave whenever you want," Con explained, "If we're doing something you don't like you don't have to help us."

"So what do you say?" Max asked finally

Harry considered it for a moment. He knew that Con was right, pretty soon he would get caught, and probably sent to another orphanage or worst. This was as good a chance as he would get. "Ok, I'm in." he said looking them in the eye.

Max and Con turned and started walking away, without checking to see if Harry was following. "Welcome to the club." Max said over her shoulder as she and Con led him to his new life.

* * *

**Reviews: **I figured I should answer some of your reviews since you were nice enough to leave them.

**Soccer Freak 101**: Thanks for the review and the enthusiasm, I will try to post often although school sometimes gets in the way, that is why it has taken me so long to get this one up. **Krystina Black** & **StarPhantom: **thanks for the reviews I really appreciate them. **Thiss-Girl** & **animeflunky: **I am so glad that you like Ms. Halliwell, I have been wanting to write this character for the longest time, I think if enough people like her then I will bring her back. **Jabarber69:** I am glad you asked that, yes I did post this story before but due to some technical difficulties I had to take it down and repost it.

Finally I want to know what you all think, I can either post long chapters and take a while to do it, or I can start posting shorter chapters quicker. I'll let you guys decide


	3. Home Sweet Home

Harry had a hard time keeping up as Con and Max led him away from the park

Harry had a hard time keeping up as Con and Max led him away from the park. They took him down dark alleys that he would have never gone near if he was alone, and winding backstreets that only someone who knew exactly where they where going could navigate. Harry felt like they were going in circles. Every alley looked exactly like the last. He thought they might actually be lost, but Con and Max both looked so sure of themselves that he didn't ask. He just followed along silently. Harry lost track of time as they walked, so he had no idea how long it took them to reach there destination, he didn't even realize they had reached it until Max stopped walking right in front of him and he nearly ran into her.

"This is it," she announced, "Home, sweet home."

Harry just stared for a moment. They had stopped in front of a large iron gate completely covered in vines. Behind the gate was a large Victorian style house that also had overgrown vines crawling up the sides. The grass had grown wild in front of the house and there were tress that looked like they might fall over any minute. It reminded Harry of the type of house you might see in a horror film. Despite its obvious draw backs he could see that it had once been a very beautiful home, and that it still held some of its old charm. Harry didn't know why, but he always liked old places like this. It could use some cleaning up but Harry could definitely see himself living here.

"Come on." Con said as he walked towards the gate. Harry saw a rusted chain and lock holding the gate in place. The lock didn't look like it was going to budge, and he wondered how they were going to get in. It didn't stop Con though; he simply walked up to the gate and pulled the lock and chain off. Harry smiled as he realized that they had never been properly locked in the first place; they were just made to look that way.

The surprise must have been written on his face, because Max said, "Things aren't always as they appear to be." and then indicated that Harry should follow Con, who was already walking towards the old house. Harry hurried to catch up to the older boy. By the time they reached the door Max was right behind him and Harry was starting to get nervous. He realized that he was once again stepping into a situation that was potentially worse than the one he was leaving. He hoped that wasn't the case, but he knew whatever happened next there was no turning back now.

Con opened the door to reveal a large, sparsely furnished room. The first thing Harry noticed was a large, curving staircase, on the other side of the room that led to the upper levels of the house. As he stepped further inside the house his eyes were quickly drawn to a roaring fire in the marble fireplace and he realized just how cold it had been outside. He hadn't noticed before because he had been too preoccupied with his thoughts to notice or even care. There were a few couches set up around a coffee table, which could have been there for any amount of time, and a dusty chandelier dangling from the ceiling above them. Otherwise the room was empty. If it wasn't for the fire and a few sounds he heard coming from upstairs Harry would have thought the place was abandoned.

"So, what do you think?" Max asked in what might have been a sarcastic tone but Harry couldn't tell. He was to busy trying to take everything in.

"It's…nice," he said distractedly as his eyes still traveled around the room. There was dust all over, but it was better than any apartment he could have found. Max went over to the couches that sat facing each other in the middle of the room and sat down. She put her feet up on the coffee table that sat between them and watched Harry as he looked around, waiting for the others to come meet the new arrival.

Harry turned towards the now closed front door as he walked towards Max and noticed that Con was nowhere to be seen. He had probably slipped away through one of the many doors around the room that must lead into different parts of the house. Harry sat down on the couch opposite Max, and was about to say something when he heard footsteps coming down the stairs. He looked up and saw a very buff guy, around 16, coming down the stairs. He looked like the type of guy who would have been a star football player. He had blond hair and blues eyes and was wearing the red jersey of a team Harry had never heard of.

"Hey, Dozer," Max said "This is Harry." Dozer walked up to the coffee table that sat between Harry and Max and stopped. Harry stood up and stuck out his hand to shake. Dozer completely ignored the hand and simple looked him up and down as if sizing him up for a fight. Harry let his hand fall back to his side as Dozer sat down next to Max who looked very small sitting next to the large teen.

"He can't be serious. This kid is like he's 7 years old." Dozer said once again looking Harry over. "You really think he's one of us?"

"No, but I think he has…potential." Max said as Harry sat back down, hoping that this Dozer guy wasn't going to be another Dudley.

"There's no way he's gonna be able to keep up." Dozer eyed him doubtfully. Harry opened his mouth to defend himself, but was interrupted by another person coming down the stairs.

"Weren't you about his age when you started?" the new arrival asked. She was about 15 or 16 with light brown eyes and black hair. "Hey, I'm Leaf." she said sticking out her hand to Harry, which he happily shook.

"Leaf?" he asked, thinking he had misunderstood.

"Yep, my parents were environmentalist." she said with a shrug.

"Oh…well, I'm Harry." he said as Leaf sat down next to him.

"Harry?" a new voice said from behind Harry, he turned to see Con walking in with a younger boy, he looked about eleven or twelve with long brownish blond hair that fell over his eyes like a curtain. "What type of a name is Harry?"

"I dunno…what's your name?" Harry asked unsure. He had never really liked his name, but what could he do about it.

"My name's Link." he said as he sat on the other side of Leaf.

"Link…seriously?" Harry asked, wondering if he was joking, but apparently he wasn't. "What type of name is Link?" Harry asked, wondering how this kid could question the name 'Harry' when his name was 'Link', if that could even be counted as a name! "It's an original name. 'Harry' on the other hand is a very common name," he paused for a second and then said "Dude, you totally need a nickname."

"Later," Con said to Link before he could start trying to come up with a name for their new arrival, then turned to Harry. "Now, the main reason you're here is for us to help you learn how to survive out there, because you've probably noticed, they didn't teach you this in school. This is the real world. No one is going to give us the things that we need…we have to take them-"

"You mean steal them?" Harry asked, even after stealing food for the past week he still didn't like the idea of taking things that weren't his.

"Yes, I mean steal them." Con looked at Harry and seemed to know exactly what he was thinking. "Harry, I know your whole life you've probably been told that stealing is wrong, but the simple fact is, you can either steal what you need or go back to your park and wait until you starve to death. Unless you'd rather stand on a corner with a sign and a cup and hope someone will take pity on the poor homeless boy, is stealing worst than begging? Or maybe you could just turn yourself over to the cops and go to an orphanage or something." He paused to let it all sink in. "What have you been doing for food this past week Harry?" Con asked with knowing eyes.

Sensing that Harry was about to get defensive Max spoke up, "Harry, lying, cheating and stealing are all necessary evils," Max said. "It's the only way we survive."

"It's like I said, we aren't your parents, and we aren't going to force you to do anything you don't want to do." Con gave him a small shrug. "What you decide is up to you." Con sat back in his seat and Harry knew that the conversation was over, it was time for him to make a choice.

Harry considered it all for a moment. He pictured himself sitting on some street corner wearing rags and begging people for food and money. He remembered when he was younger he had tried to give a homeless person outside of the grocery store fifty cents, but his aunt had grabbed his hand and told him never to go near people like that, _'the man was probably just trying to get money to buy liquor or drugs'_ he remembered her saying. Harry didn't want people to treat him like that or judge him before they ever got to know him. At that moment Harry decided that he would never beg for anything, and he never wanted to go to another orphanage again. "I want to learn anything you can teach me." he said determinedly

"Good," Con said with a slight smile, "We'll start tomorrow. Link, show Harry to his new room and explain the house rules."

Link stood and began walking towards the stairs, "Where'd you get that scar?" he asked suddenly looking at Harry's forehead.

"Um, I was in a car crash when I was a baby." Harry said, not mentioning that his parents had died in that crash.

"It's cool; it looks like a lightning bolt." Harry followed him over to the stairs but Link stopped abruptly and turned back to the others, "That's it," he said looking as if he had just had a brilliant idea "That is your new nickname!" he said to Harry.

"Lightning bolt?" Harry asked confused, _he must be joking_ Harry thought, as he looked at the other boy.

"No, not lightning bolt," he said, looking at Harry like he was the crazy one, "Your new nickname is Lightning."

Harry laughed, and then saw that once again Link didn't seem to be joking. "You can't be serious," he said, but it seemed like he was. "Lightning?" Harry asked incredulously looking to the others for support, but they were no help.

"I like it." Max said with a grin.

"Yeah, it makes you sound cool." Leaf said sarcastically.

"Cooler than 'Harry' at least." Dozer said with a snort.

Harry looked at Con, his last hope, but he was enjoying this as well. "Don't look at me…Lightning." Con smirked. That seemed to make it official for the others; Harry was now 'Lightning' as far as they were concerned. He would have argued more, but he got the feeling it was a lost cause. _Well I always wanted a nickname and it kinda fits, new house, new life, new name_, he thought as he followed Link up the stairs, _I guess from now on, I'm Lightning_. He followed Link down a long candle lit hall way that was lined with doors, bedrooms, he guessed.

"So Lightning," He said looking at Harry. The name just rolled off Links tongue but Harry knew it would take a while for him to get used to them calling him that, "One of the most important rules of the house is, never turn on the lights when we don't need them." When Harry shot him a confused look he explained, "You have to remember, we aren't supposed to be here, and as far as the neighbors are concerned this house is abandoned. So imagine their surprise if they look over and see this place lit up like a Christmas tree."

Harry nodded and then looked around "But what about all these candles?" he asked, the candles weren't very bright but people still might notice them.

"You can't see them from outside," Link explained, "A few months ago we decided to see how many we could light without anyone outside being able to see. I don't remember how many it was, but it was definitely more than this. The windows in the bedrooms have really thick curtains so it's safer in there, but you still don't wanna chance it. Besides, most of our power comes from a generator downstairs, so it's best not to use it when we don't have to." Harry just nodded.

"Another important rule is, never leave anything lying around. If someone decides to get curious and come looking around in here we don't want them realizing that we stay here." Harry nodded again "Which reminds me, you should never get too comfortable, we might have to pick up and leave at a moments notice and you're going to need to have everything you want to bring with you ready to go. If the cops come breakin' down the door there isn't going to be any time for you to pack, you gotta be ready to go right then and there. That's why most of us keep anything we don't want to leave behind packed up."

"I don't have anything." Harry said with a shrug, can't lose what you don't have.

"You don't have anything now, but you will." Link said with a small chuckle, "Just remember, you should never get attached to material stuff. Clothes, toys, even a house like this, can all be replaced." Harry thought about what Link had just said and decided that he was right. All those trivial things weren't important, at least not to him. People like the Dursleys got attached to all their little possessions, and Harry never wanted to be like them. Harry was a bit surprised that Link was so insightful, he had seemed like a laid back joker type, _but first impressions aren't always right,_ Harry thought.

"Here we are!" Link announced, as they stopped in front of a door near the end of the hall. He opened the door and stood back to let Harry look around. It was a bigger than his room had been at the orphanage, and way bigger than the cupboard at the Dursley's house. There was a king size bed in the middle of the room with an old dresser on either side. The paint was pealing off the walls and there was dust everywhere. His aunt Petunia would probably have a heart attack if she saw it. Harry liked it. He walked to the middle of the room and then turned back to Link and saw that Max had joined them.

"What do you think Lightning?" she asked

"It's great." he said honestly.

She walked in and sat on the bed, "Did you explain the rules?" she asked Link.

"A few of them," Link answered.

"Well, you're probably pretty tired by now," she said to Harry, "As long as you know the basics we can go over the rest tomorrow. When you get up come down to the kitchen and we'll explain the rest." she said getting up to leave. Before she closed the door she said, "The bathroom is through that door," pointing to a door on Harry's right, "Goodnight, Harry." she closed the door before he could reply.

Harry just stood in the middle of the room, looking around for a moment before going to check out the bathroom, he washed up a bit before getting in bed. With all the excitement he hadn't realized how tired he was until now, for the first time in what seemed like a long time things were finally going his way. It only took him a few seconds to fall asleep, with dreams of what tomorrow would bring.

R&R


	4. Pick Pocketing 101

**A/N: thanks for all the reviews, I really want to know what you think of Harry's new friends so please read and review so I can kow what I need to improve. I thought I should post a new chapter to go along with the new year, I hope you all enjoy. Happy New year!**

**Reviews: **

**Anna Marie Raven: **thanks for the review, I haven't watched Matilda in years, (such a sweet movie) but I wasn't thinking off Ms. Honey when I wrote Ms. Halliwell, I actually had her in my mind for a while. I have decided that I will bring Ms. Halliwell back, you'll have to keep reading to find out when and where.

**Paul**, **shannyauburn,** **blah,** **pete magno & kind evil**thanks for the review guys, I will try to update regularly. I would love to hear more from you.

**Barranca:** As Ms. Halliwell once said "When things seem to good to be true, it's usually becasue they are." glad you liked the chapter, keep reading and reviewing.

**soccer freak 101: **you're so sweet, thanks for understanding and the kind words. I am really trying to get as much as possible done before school starts back up. It's nice to see that people are really enjoying the story.

**Stilico:** thanks for the review, yes Harry will definitly be going to Hogwarts, you're going to have to keep reading to find out when and how.

**Miss Ravenclaw: **A lot of people were probably expecting "some dump with starving children" but I thought this would be better. I hope you enjoy this chapter.

**Star-A-Licious: **I have never seen Danny Phantom so no Dozer is not Dash. Every new character in this story came staight from my head. Thanks for the review.

**pstibbons:** I am glad you're enjoying it. What is a portkey ship? I am trying to avoid reading any other "street kid" fics to make sure that they don't some how influence my writing. thanks for review.

**Pick-Pocket 101**

Harry woke up the next morning when sunlight hit his face through a crack in the thick curtains covering the window. It took him a moment to remember where he was and how he got here, but as he looked around the room it all came back to him, _Con and Max, the long walk through the back streets, meeting the gang…..agreeing to become one of them,_ Harry remembered it all but still couldn't believe it had actually happened, it seemed too good to be true. He closed is eyes and turned over, trying to go back to sleep, but he couldn't help remembering something Ms. Halliwell had said to him _'when something seems too good to be true, it probably is.' _Harry quickly pushed that memory to the back off his mind, he knew that thinking of people from his old life wouldn't help him, _I am starting off fresh,_ he thought.

As hard as he tried Harry knew that he wasn't going to be able to go back to sleep, so he slowly began to extract himself from the warm comfortable bed. Glancing around the room he noticed new clothes sitting on top of the dresser near the door. He went into the bathroom to try the clothes on and found that they fit perfectly, the tags were still on it and Harry was shocked to see that they were expensive and brand named, _the type of stuff aunt Petunia used to buy for Dudley. _Harry had only ever worn Dudley's hand-me-downs and they had always been at least three times his size. Harry decided he was long over due for a shower, and even though the water was only lukewarm he still thought it was the best shower he ever had. Finally feeling clean for the first time in days, he quickly dressed and decided to go downstairs.

Harry paused when he got to the top of the staircase and saw Leaf, Con and Max sitting on the couches. Max seemed to be the mediator in a very heated discussion between Con and Leaf. Harry couldn't hear what they were saying and he didn't want to intrude but his curiosity got the better of him and he began to quietly make his way down the stairs. He didn't get far before Max noticed him and gave a very loud greeting, cutting off whatever Con had been saying. Con and Leaf quickly went quiet as Harry walked up to them but Harry didn't miss the pointed look Leaf shot Con. Harry immediately got the feeling that whatever they were arguing about had something to do with him, but he didn't get a chance to further investigate though.

"Max, why don't you show Lightning where the kitchen is," Con said without taking his eyes off Harry. Something about his tone told Harry that this wasn't really a question and Con wouldn't take _'I'm not hungry'_ as an answer.

"Yeah, he must be hungry." Leaf said shooting Harry a reassuring smile.

"Ok," Max said, as if she wasn't sure she wanted to leave them alone together. "Come on, Lightning." She said with a sigh. Harry followed along silently, wondering what it was he had just interrupted. All thoughts about Con and Leaf vanished as they entered the kitchen and Harry saw the food laid out on the table. There was a bowl of scrambled eggs a plate full of bacon and a tray of freshly baked biscuits.

"Hey guys," Link said, looking up from the newspaper to see who had just come in. Max handed Harry a plate and told him to help himself as she sat down next to Link.

"Anything good?" Max asked Link as Harry sat down with a pile of food on his plate and started to inhale the food like there was no tomorrow. He ate two biscuits and half his plate of eggs within two minutes and all Max and Link could do was stare at him in amazement.

"Slow down Lightning, the food isn't going anywhere." Max laughed

"He eats like Dozer," Link said disbelievingly. "How are we going to feed two of them?" he wondered.

Harry could feel the blood rush to his cheeks, "I haven't had breakfast in a while." he muttered, as he slowed down to a normal pace.

Link just shook his head then answered Max's question, "Nothing worth it, although I do like this watch Mr. Frank Adams has on, we may have to pay a visit to the Upper East Side tonight." He said with a grin, looking down at a picture in the local paper. Harry glanced up at them with a questioning look. "The thing I like most about the rich, Lightning, is whenever they get something nice and valuable they always love to flaunt it. If they could just keep their mouths closed we wouldn't even know they had most this stuff. Take Mr. Adams here for instance," he gestured down to the paper. "That watch he's wearing must be worth at least a thousand bucks!" Link exclaimed.

"We always find our best marks in the local paper," Max added wistfully

"It's like they're begging use to take it." Link said with a slightly bitter tone, "And we are always happy to help them out." he let a mischievous grin spread across his face. Harry just stared for a moment, unsure what to say, part of him was outraged, _how can they be so harsh about a person they never even met, that man never did anything to them, he doesn't deserve to have his things stolen from him…_ But he really didn't want to disagree with them out loud, unfortunately Link noticed the strained look on Harry's face before he could cover it up, "What's wrong?" he asked.

"Nothing…" Harry said with a forced smile, they didn't buy it though and Harry couldn't think up a good lie so he told them the truth, "It's just…that guy never did anything to any of us." Harry said quietly hoping that they wouldn't get mad at him.

"He may not have done anything to us, but nobody gets that type of money without stepping on a few people on the way up….we're just returning the favor." Link said rationally, as if that justified stealing. Harry still didn't agree but he kept his thoughts to himself. After a moment Max and Link just continued talking as if he wasn't there, Harry didn't mind he just continued eating.

"There's nothing else interesting in here." Link said as he continued glancing through the pages, and then as an after thought he added "And they still haven't found the person that caused the orphanage fire."

The fork froze half way to Harry's mouth, he felt all the blood drain out of his face "Orphanage fire?" he asked, forgetting about the food in front of him.

"Yeah," Link said, "There was this huge fire at St. Peter's orphanage a few days ago, completely burned the place down. A few people got out but most of the kids were still inside, they were all killed." Link said grimly.

Harry slowly lowered the fork; he had completely lost his appetite. Max must have noticed the horrified look on his face "You alright Lightning?" she asked. Harry just gave weak nod, unable to speak. Max raised a curious eyebrow, but Harry wasn't paying attention, _they're all dead…. _He thought.

"They'll catch who ever caused this fire," Link said when he saw that Max wasn't going to offer any comforting words, "And even if they don't, whoever's responsible is gonna have to live with that guilt for the rest of their life." Harry stood abruptly and started walking towards the door. "Where're you going?" Link asked, surprised by Harry's sudden departure.

"Bathroom." Is all Harry could say as he quickly walked back to his room, he was barely able to stop himself from running. He quickly closed the door to his bathroom and locked it before sliding down to the floor. He felt like he couldn't breathe, like someone had sucked all the air out of the room. His thoughts were running wild but he kept coming back to the same conclusion _'it's my fault, it's all my fault! _The walls seemed to be closing in around him, and he still couldn't breathe. '_Those people….they all died because of me, the masked people were after _me, _it's_ _all my fault! If I had just stayed and given myself up they would all still be alive, Stan, Mrs. Sanders...it's all my fault! _Harry quickly pulled himself up to the sink and started retching until there was nothing left in his stomach. He felt himself regain a little control as he splashed water on his face, _no...this isn't my fault...I didn't kill anyone! I did what anyone else would have done…I pulled the fire alarm.…and I tried to get Stan out of there….there was nothing I could do for Mrs. Sanders…I did what anyone else would do, this isn't my fault! _Harry repeated it in his mind_, it's not my fault, it's not my fault, it is not my fault, _but there was still a small voice in his head telling him, _yeah you did what anyone else would have done, you ran and left all those people to _die Harry pushed it to the back of his mind, where he was keeping all his other repressed memories, until he couldn't hear it anymore.

Looking up into the mirror Harry said it once out loud, "It isn't my fault." He dried his face, waited one more minute to get himself back in order, and then walked out of the bathroom. He slowly walked back down to the kitchen, trying to figure out what he would say if anyone asked what had happened to him. He realized that it probably wouldn't be an issue as he walked into the kitchen and saw all 5 of them sitting around the dining room table waiting for him. They all looked up at him when he walked through the door and Harry got the feeling that he was once again being sized up by them. After a moment of uncomfortable silence Con finally announced, "Time to start your first lesson, Lightning."

* * *

Harry soon found out that his first lesson would be pick pocketing. Con led them all into the living and room and began to explain the basics of what he calls '_one of the most basic means of survival', _Harry wasn't so sure he was ready for this, but as Con began to explain he found himself hanging on every word, as if he were telling some fantastic story. "Pick pocketing is easy, non-violent and one of the quickest ways to get money for food and things if you're in a jam. If done properly, a good pickpocket can make more in a day than a stick up man can in a year. Everyone you see is a mark; mindless teenagers, Mothers with kids, the elderly, the man sitting next to you on the park bench and distracted tourists are all potential targets." Con paused when he saw the horrified look on Harry's face. 

It had all sounded very interesting to Harry until Con started talking about the potential marks, '_mothers with children? The elderly?_' Harry thought disgusted, but once again the voice in the back of Harry's mind said '_if it's what I've got to do….it's not like he's telling me to specifically target old lady's and moms, he's just saying that they are _potential_ targets…it's nothing personal….' _

"The one thing you have to remember, _Lightning_," Con said, emphasizing Harry's new nickname, "It's not personal, it's just business." Harry was surprised at how similar his own thoughts were. He slowly nodded and Con continued, "The one thing you must have to be a pick pocket is patience, you have to be able to wait for the right mark, and the right time to strike. Once you have the right mark wait until he's distracted, which should be easy enough, people can only focus on one thing at a time. It's always best to do this in a crowded place, where a simple bump will go unnoticed; you slip your hand in and relieve them of their valuables, but you always have to pay attention to the people around you. You never know when curious eyes might be watching……….

After Con was done explaining the basics, Link and Dozer demonstrated a few ways to lift things off a mark. Link would bump into Dozer and lift his wallet without pausing, _it seems easy enough_, Harry thought, but looks can be deceiving. The first time he couldn't get the wallet out of Dozers pocket. When he finally managed to get it out properly he completely forgot that he was supposed to be _stealing_ and started to jump around happily. The next time he managed to get it out he accidentally dropped the wallet right in front of Dozer as he was walking by. On what seemed like his hundredth try Harry was so frustrated it felt like the wallet jumped out of Dozers pocket and into his hand, but Harry didn't pause, he kept walking like he was supposed to until he reached the other side of the room. "Yes! I did it!" he exclaimed as he turned with a triumphant grin towards the others.

Everyone sitting on the couches wore bored expressions and Dozer gave a sarcastic round of applause "Way to go. Now we get to move on to jewelry."

* * *

Two hours later and they were on their way to test out Harry's new skills in the real world. Once they all felt that Harry finally mastered the art of pick-pocketing they led Harry down to the basement to show him their 'escape tunnels', which turned out to be a hole in the basement floor that led down to a water drainage system. Leaf explained that these tunnels led all over the city and connected to the sewer system. They were the safest way to travel if you were moving stolen merchandise or if you just wanted to go unnoticed. 

They brought flashlights with them to light their way and Harry paused for a moment to look at some graffiti on the wall that Con had just been studying.

"It's a street name," Dozer informed him as he walked past Harry. Harry spent another moment staring at it but it still seemed like a random drawing to him, he jogged to catch up with the rest of the group.

"It looked like gibberish to me," Harry said when he caught up.

"Of course it did," Link said looking over his shoulder at Harry, "It's made to look that way. It's actually the name off the street we're walking under."

"Why couldn't they just right it in plain English then?" he asked confused, _that seems like a lot of trouble to go through just to write a street name, _Harry thought.

"Sometimes one of the sewer drains will get clogged up and they have to send sanitation workers down here to unclog it. If they saw street names written all over they would know that someone was using these tunnels regularly, but if they see graffiti they just figure its random gibberish gang writings." Max explained. _That makes sense….kind of,_ Harry thought.

"If they think its gang writing, then why don't they send somebody down to erase it?" Harry asked _that's what they always do when there's gang writing on a building, _He thought rationally.

"This writing has been down here for years." Leaf pointed out, "Besides what would be the point in repainting a bunch of sewers?" Harry hadn't considered that.

"If you ever need to ditch the police just come down here, it's like a maze." Max advised him.

"But don't come down here alone, not until you can read the street names," Con told him seriously. "It would take us hours to find you if you got lost down here, and you don't know your way back to the house." Harry just nodded solemnly.

When they finally reached the right street Max climbed up the ladder under to lift the manhole cover and look around outside. "You never want to come climbing out of a tunnel when there are people around. Trust me, it's not something you want to try to explain." Link said quietly.

"It's clear." Max said, and they all quickly climbed out and replaced the cover. Harry looked around and saw that they were standing in a deserted alley.

"Let's go." Con said with a smirk at Harry. They walked out of the alley and quickly blended with the crowds, anyone watching would have thought that they were just a bunch of kids hanging out after school. They walked to an outdoor shopping center a few blocks away from the alley and began to mix with the crowd. Harry noticed Link bumped into a man and kept walking, when he saw Harry looking he shot him a wink and then disappeared into the crowd. Harry looked around him and realized that he and Con were now standing alone, _I didn't even see the others leave,_ he thought as he tried to spot them in the crowd.

"Now Harry, let's see how much you've really learned." Con looked around as if searching for someone, "See that man over there?" he said pointing to a guy who was just putting his wallet back into his pocket. "That's you're first mark. He's got at least fifty bucks in his wallet. Got get it." Con said it as a challenge.

"I'm not sure I'm ready for this," Harry said suddenly feeling very sick.

Con put an encouraging hand on Harry's shoulder, "We've taught you everything we can about pick pocketing. You have to figure the rest out for yourself. Now go." Con said giving him a slight push forward.

Harry felt like he was going to faint any second. _That would be an excellent start,_ He thought as he got closer to the man. _I can do this, _he thought as he tried to recall everything he had just spent the last two hours learning. _Wait for him to get distracted, _Harry thought as he stood back and watched the guy. It didn't take long before the man was completely distracted by something in one of the store windows. _Go now,_ said a voice in his head that was begining to sound more like Con's voice than his own. He felt his feet start to carry him forward seemingly of there own accord, he was working on automatic now. Harry got within inches off the guy and then accidentally bumped into him, his hand slid into the mans pocket and he felt his two fingers slide the wallet out and quickly slip it into his own all within the two seconds it took for him to bump into the guy and walk past him without so much as an "excuse me". Harry tried not to start running, he could hear his heart pounding in his throat, he just knew that he was going to feel a hand grab his shoulder any second, but the guy never came and Harry inconspicuously slipped into a shoe store as if he had been aiming for it all along. He quickly found a chair and tried to calm himself down, he could feel the adrenaline pumping through him, as he looked around and then slowly pulled the wallet out of his pocket. He looked inside and found nearly 6 hundred dollars, a few credit cards and the guys ID.

"Good job." Harry nearly jumped out of his skin when he heard this and looked up to find Con standing over him with a small grin "How do you feel?"

"I…I…it felt…" Harry stuttered trying to find the words to describe what he was feeling right now, it was like nothing he had ever felt before, except maybe those times when he used to make strange things happen but that had always been accidental, this was…. different.

"Amazing?" Leaf supplied from behind him. Harry looked around and saw that all the others had joined them in the shoe store and once again he hadn't noticed them.

"Yeah," Harry said with a slight grin, "It felt amazing." Harry wasn't sure that was the right word for it, _It does feel good….but it also feels bad. That doesn't make any sense._ He told himself, _I just made more money in the past five minutes than I have in my entire life! _His con voice told him . _I just stole from a man, who knows what he was going to use that money for! _He thought of the family the man might have at home. _Yeah, who knows what_ _he was going to buy? I certainly don't._ He thought of all the frivolous things that man was probably going to spend the money on. The voice in his head was definitly starting to sound like Con's, _isn't it better for it to go to the poor? _It asked in a sarcastic tone.

"How much did he have?" Link asked, jumping over the back of the chair to sit next to Harry. Harry just handed him the wallet and let him look for himself.

"Wow, Good pull." Max said looking over Links shoulder. Con took the wallet out of Links hands and looked through it. He quickly pulled the ID out and threw it in the nearest trashcan, he gave all the cash to Harry.

"Always dump the ID as soon as possible." Con said quietly. Harry looked down at the cash in his hands, he had never held this much money in his hand in his life, "The cash is all yours." Con said as an after thought. He continued to look through the wallet and took out the credit card before handing it back to Harry. "Ready to go back out there?" Con asked

"Ready as I'll ever be." Harry replied, while slipping the wallet back into his pocket and standing up. Harry followed Con out of the store, ready to find his next mark.

* * *

They left the shopping center with at least 3 times as much in their pockets as they had when they first walked in. Harry was just relieved that they were going home, he had spent the last 4 hours feeling more conflicted than he has in his entire life, he knew that what he was doing was wrong but he knew that he couldn't back out after that first pull. He made a decision and now he had to go through with it. Harry was pulled out of his thoughts when he nearly slammed into Link who had stopped walking directly in front of him. 

"Check it out, it's Frank Adams!" Link laughed "And he's wearing the watch…this is just too good." Harry looked over to see the man Link and Max had been talking about at breakfast waiting to cross the street towards them.

"It does look nice," Dozer said checking out the obviously expensive watch on the man's wrist.

"Since this is Lightning's first day out, I think he should do the honors." Con said to the group as the street lights began to change. "Go for it Lightning." Harry looked around at the group, they all seemed to be wearing encouraging and slightly intimidating smiles and he knew that they reminded him of something but he couldn't think of what it was. Harry remembered the speech Con gave when they first brought him to the house, he said that Harry could say no at any time but looking at them now, he knew that saying 'no' wasn't really an option, not anymore. They began to move forward with Harry walking behind all of them and quickly coming up with a plan. At the exact moment that Harry and Adams were about to cross paths Harry tripped and accidentally knocked into Mr. Adams arm. To Harry's surprise and utter terror Mr. Adams actually stopped to make sure he was okay and for what seemed like the longest moment of Harry's life he felt sure that Adams would look down and notice his watch missing, but after one heart stopping moment Mr. Adams continued walking. Harry got to the other side of the street where the rest of the gang was waiting for him.

"Dude, I totally thought he was gonna bust you!" Link said excitedly as he clapped Harry on the back.

"Yeah, so did I," Harry admitted shakily as they continued walking.

"Lets see it," Max said with a mischievous grin. Harry pulled the watch out of his pocket and handed it to Max.

"It's gotta be worth a grand, at least." Link said looking down at the watch with a look of pure greed on his face.

Harry just couldn't stop thinking about what had just happened _he stopped to see if I was ok, I lifted his watch and he stopped to see if _I _was ok,_ Harry thought with an overwhelming guilt coming over him. _So what?_ His Con voice said, _he wasn't a bad guy like they said, he wasn't some selfish self-absorbed rich person like they made him out to be. _He thought, _just because he wasn't a jerk this time doesn't mean he isn't one normally, I have no idea what that guy is really like, and it doesn't matter, what's done is done! _His Con voice said ending his mental argument.

"I think it's time we head home, Lightning must be exhausted." Leaf said, Harry wasn't sure if she was be sarcastic or not but he really was tired.

* * *

When they finally got back home Harry went straight up to his room and pulled out one of the nicer wallets that he had pulled and stashed put a hundred dollars into it then stashed the rest of the cash under his mattress and laid down. He looked at his new wallet and wondered who it used to belong to. A picture stuffed into one of the pockets caught his eye and he slowly pulled it already dreading what he was going to see. The wallet belonged to the first man he stole from, he was standing on a pier with two children and a women who could only be his family. He had robbed a man who had a wife and kids. Harry felt like he was going to be sick again, he quickly got out of bed and pulled out as many of the wallets he could find. /by the time he was done looking through them he'd found out that most of the people he's just taken from had families. _This is not what is signed up for,_ he thought guiltily._ Yes, it is. I wanted them to teach me everything they could and that is exactly what they are doing,_ his con voice told him cynically. Harry got back in bed and tossed and turned for hours. The exhaustion finally overcame him around midnight and as he drifted off to sleep he realized what the gangs smiles reminded him of…….wolves. A pack of hungry wolves.

* * *

Review


	5. learning the hard way

**A/N:** sorry it took me so long to get this out. I hate standerdized tests (espeacially finals)! A big thanks to my beta Jenn. I hope you all like this chapter, please read and review.

**Miss Ravenclaw: **thanks for the awsome review, it's nice to know that this story is different (in a good way). I would have felt bad if you had said it was a normal story. Harry is definitly conflicted, as you will see in this chapter.

**Anna Marie Raven:** you were the only one who mentioned the other children from the orphanage. All of this guilt can't be good for him. You'll have to wait to see how Ms. Halliwell comes back, but I think it might be a bit of a surprise.

**Barranca: **Harry really has no control over his powers yet, but let's just hope the gang doesn't catch on. who knows what they would do if they find out.

**animeflunky:** For right now Harry really has nowhere else to be. I personally think it's better for him to be with the gang than to be sleeping in a park somewhere, but you're right, this isn't a good place for him to be.

**flower123:** I know I would be freaked out too. Because so many asked for her to come back, we will be seeing ms Halliwell again, you'lll have to keep reading to find out when and where though. I can't tell you who's going to find him when it's time to learn magic, but I can tell you that it'll be surprising. I really can't wait to write that Chapter.

**Twinkle Phantom: **did you change your user name star? I hope that was a good 'wow'. lol.

**Anders1: **I am glad you pointed that out, it actually never occured to me that they should be carrying pounds instead of dollars. Harry is in the UK, but I am in the U.S. and I really don't know that much about UK so please bare with me. I will probably make more mistakes like that but I hope it doesn't put you off reading the story.

**goldentree**: thanks so much for the great review. I really want to hear your opinion on this chapter so please review.

**Emurez:** I'm glad you like it. hope you enjoy this chapter too.

**SargFrost, AquaRias, and shannyauburn: **Thanks for the reviews, I am sorry it took me so long to update, but hopefully now that finals are over i'll have more time. R&R

**Learning the hard way**

_Two Week Later_

BANG!

Harry was startled out of his sleep. All he could see was darkness around him and for a moment, he thought he was back on private drive and Aunt Petunia was banging on his cupboard door, then he heard Dozer call through the door. "Get up Lightning!"

"I'm up," Harry called groggily as he pulled the covers off his face and looked around his room. He had gotten used to many things over the past two weeks but he was still surprised every morning when he woke up in this huge bed. Harry crawled out of bed and went over to his closet that was now full of clothes. After his first week with gang, Harry had enough money to buy himself a full wardrobe and just about every toy and game he always wanted but could never afford. He'd hardly spent any money at all though, almost all of his new stuff was stolen. A few days after he started pick pocketing they brought him to a clothing store and told him to buy whatever he wanted. The next day they went to a different store and showed him how to steal it. Harry quickly realized that it was much easier for him to steal from big corporations than actual people, he felt much less guilt.

He quickly jumped into the shower and then threw on some of his new clothes and headed downstairs. When he got to the kitchen, Dozer and Leaf were talking while Con looked over the newspaper. Harry grabbed a plate and piled some food onto it, then went to join the others at the table. He had accepted the fact that stealing was a part of his life, but he still didn't like taking things from random people off the streets, it just seemed wrong to him. He still couldn't bring himself to pick people out of the newspaper to be his next 'mark'. The others were perfectly willing to do it for him.

"Listen to this," Con said with an amused laugh "'with another stream of robberies being reported, police are cracking down on the criminal element that seems to be growing in the Upper East Side', looks like things are about to get interesting." Con said with a smug look on his face. Looking around Harry saw that Dozer and Leaf seemed just as unconcerned. _How can they be so calm, _Harry wondered as he felt the blood drain from his face.

"What are we going to do?" Harry asked worriedly._ How are we going to do anything with cops around?_ He wondered as he looked around anxiously.

"Don't sound so worried Lightning." Con said as if Harry was overreacting. "This is going to be fun." He said with a grin.

"Stealing from the rich and pampered is one thing," Dozer said, "but doing it right under the cops noses…. priceless." He laughed.

"Don't worry about it Lightning," Leaf said reassuringly, "The rent-a-cops around here are a joke. They are just as pampered and clueless as the people they're supposed to be protecting." Harry nodded but he wasn't sure about this, Dozer was right, stealing from rich people was one thing, but doing it right in front of the cops, even if they were just rent-a-cops, was dangerous. For the next ten minutes Harry intently focused on his plate as the others picked out more potential marks, he was trying so hard to ignore them that he almost missed what Con said next.

"Well Lightning," Con said, "It's time for your next lesson." This immediately got Harry's attention. This was the first time Con had mentioned the lessons since they taught Harry to shoplift. Since then, the only thing they showed him was how to navigate the tunnels and find his way back home if they were ever separated. Harry had started wondering if they thought he couldn't handle it, _but not having anymore lessons wouldn't be the worst thing in the world, would it?_ He thought as he considered the terrible guilt he had felt when he found those pictures in the wallets he had stolen. Harry shook himself out of his thoughts and noticed Dozer looking at him with an odd gleam in his eyes.

"Dozer will be teaching you self defense today." Con said pleasantly. Harry looked at Dozer again, _not having any more lessons definitely wouldn't be the worst thing in the world_, he thought.

* * *

Harry stood in the middle of the room, the floor was covered by mats and there were punching bags and exercising equipment everywhere, including swords and knives of all types, some scary looking wooden sticks, and other dangerous looking things that he prayed they wouldn't be using. Harry wondered for a moment how they could have gotten all this stuff without anyone noticing. 

When they first walked into the room, Dozer had started circling him with a critical gaze that made Harry extremely uncomfortable. Now he was just standing with his back turned so that Harry couldn't see what he was doing. Harry wasn't sure what he was supposed to be doing and Dozer hadn't said a word since they had entered. Harry started to open his mouth to ask when Dozer suddenly turned around, faster than Harry would have thought possible for someone so big, and threw something straight at his head. Harry quickly ducked. He didn't know what Dozer was throwing but he wasn't going to wait until it hit him to find out. Before he could catch his breath Harry was forced to dive to the floor, but before he could move again the air was knocked out of him by something very hard hitting his side. It felt like he had just been hit by a brick, and for the moment all he could do was lie on the floor and gasp for breath while he fought back tears that rushed to his eyes. He didn't care how much it hurt, he would not let Dozer see him cry.

Once his vision had cleared, Harry looked up and saw Dozer standing over him. "You're fast," Dozer told him, as if they were still talking over breakfast, "Good instincts, but you've definitely gotta learn how to take a hit." Dozer said conversationally. Harry slowly pulled himself up when it became apparent that Dozer wasn't going to help him. "You can be faster than your opponent every time, but if you don't know how to take a hit you'll always lose."

"Well that's nice to know." Harry said bitterly, Dozer could have given him some warning.

"You're angry. Good." Dozer walked over to a punching bag and Harry reluctantly followed. "Take a swing at it." Harry raised his hands unsurely, he had never been a fighter, even after all his years of being picked on by Dudley. He had only tried to fight back once, one day when he and Dudley were six and Dudley had been picking on him. Harry had gotten sick of it and accidentally broke Dudley's nose. Harry had never seen his uncle so mad, by the time Vernon was done with him; Harry had a busted lip, a sprained ankle and it hurt to sit for a whole week. Harry had never fought back again. Harry could feel the anger rising within him, raised his fist, and punched the bag as hard as he could. He and Dozer were both surprised 200 pound bag went swinging dangerously into the air.

Dozer stared for a moment in shock as he watched Harry dodged the bag. "You're stronger than you look." Dozer said impressed, "hit it again." He said once the bag stopped swinging. _What was that?_ Harry wondered as he stared at the bag. He hit it again, but this time it didn't budge. Dozer had him hit it a few more times, correcting Harry's form each time until he got the hang of it, although it never again went as high as it did the first time. Dozer led Harry over to the middle of the room, "Now that you have the basics down it's time to practice with a real person. Hit me." Dozer ordered.

Harry wasn't prepared for this, he raised his fists the way Dozer had showed him, but he couldn't bring himself to hit him. "Come on Lightning. What you think you're gonna hurt me? Come on," Dozer pushed him "Hit me!" Harry wasn't sure what Dozer was trying to do but he still couldn't hit him. Dozer gave a sarcastic laugh. "I knew you weren't really one of us, _Harry,_" Dozer said patronizingly, "Why don't you go back to your little park?" Harry felt his pulse speeding up as Dozer continued his attack, "Better yet, why don't you just go home to mommy and daddy, or did they not want you either?" Harry felt anger course through him at the mention of his parents. "Poor little orphan Harry, unwanted and unloved. Are you going to cry now?" Dozer asked in a mocking voice. Harry didn't know what came over him; he felt a tingling sensation run through him and completely lost control of himself. He felt his fist connect with Dozer's jaw and watched as he hit the floor with a loud thump.

As soon as he did it the tingling sensation was replaced by dread, _What did I do! _He panicked as he looked down at Dozer, _he deserved it, _his Con voice reminded him, _he's going to kill me, _Harry thought, he knew that Dozer could probably crush him with one hand tied behind his back. Before he could say or do anything else, Dozer was back on his feet and he did not look happy. Harry closed his eyes and waited for the pain he knew was coming, but it never did. Harry slowly opened his eyes and saw Dozer spit out blood.

"Definitely stronger than you look." Dozer said as he looked at Harry appraisingly. "Now we can start the real lesson."

* * *

By the time they were done Harry was felt more exhausted than he had ever felt in his life, he was bruised and battered and he was dreading tomorrow, Dozer told him that they would be training together every morning until he said otherwise. That night Harry was asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow, and was once again woken by Dozer banging on his door. They worked out together from 6 o'clock to 8 o'clock when Dozer finally let Harry go take a shower and get some breakfast. When he got there, Max and Leaf were already eating and Con was reading the paper. Harry could barely lift his arms to bring the fork up to his mouth. 

"Are you okay?" Leaf asked looking concerned. This was the third time he had accidentally dropped his fork onto table, causing a loud clatter.

"No pain no gain, Lightning." Max said unsympathetically without looking up.

"Fine." Harry said quietly to Leaf so the others couldn't hear, then he picked up the fork. Leaf didn't look like she believed him but before she could question him further Con looked up from his newspaper.

"So are you ready for your next lesson Lightning?" Con asked in cheerful voice. He was obviously enjoying this much more than Harry was.

"But I just finished my lesson! I have the bruises to prove it." Harry said disbelievingly. They couldn't possibly expect him to go work out again he was tired enough as it is.

Con just smiled "Don't worry, you're done with Dozer for today." Harry let out a relieved sigh. "You're next lesson is going to be with Me, Leaf and Max. Only if you're up to it of course." Con added the last part as an afterthought, obviously not caring at all if he was 'up to it'.

"Yeah, I'm up to it." Harry felt like he was being challenged again, and he wasn't going to back down, _even if my arms do feel like they're going to fall of any second_, Harry thought to himself. It seemed to him that everyone here was constantly making him prove himself to them, _except maybe Leaf,_ he thought, _but all of the others….even Max and Link…. They don't trust me yet_ he realized. _Maybe because I'm not really one of them yet,_ his Con voice said quietly.

"Good, let's go then." Con said with the same patronizing smile on his face.

* * *

They were walking around the middle of a crowded shopping center. They had been there for hours and it was starting to feel like they were walking through a maze. As hard as he tried to keep track of where they were going Harry was quickly distracted by all the stores they were walking past, He was completely unprepared when Con stopped and asked him "See that guy over there, Lightning?" as he pointed through the crowd towards a businessman wearing a long overcoat. Harry, who had completely lost focus of what they were here to do looked around for the person Con was talking about, and noticed that Max had already slipped away into the crowd. Harry felt his nerves on edge as he waited for Con to tell him what he would have to do this time. "I want you to go lift his wallet." Harry looked up at Con, _not this again, _he thought, _I thought I was supposed to be learning something new! _Harry was surprised to find himself feeling disappointed. He glanced at Leaf but her face was just as blank as Con's. Without a word he started walking towards his Mark. 

Once Harry was out of ear shot Leaf turned to Con, "Is this really necessary?" she asked quietly as she watched Harry work his way through the crowds towards the man.

"Of course it is." Con said seriously, also watching Harry.

"Are you sure he is ready for this?" she demanded.

Con turned to face Leaf, "He's as ready as he'll ever be. Stop coddling him, it's not helping anyone."

Leaf stared straight back at Con, "He's just a kid. This is wrong and you know it."

"He needs to understand what's really at stake," Con couldn't hold her gaze anymore and turned back towards Harry. "Some lessons have to be learned the hard way." He said coldly.

* * *

Harry walked quickly through the crowds, without taking his eyes off his mark. He knew that there were too many people around for him to make a quick getaway if he got caught, so he waited until the man started moving again and followed him into a less crowded part of the shopping center before making his move. There were enough people that a slight bump would go unnoticed but he could still move quickly. He started towards his target as the man picked up a magazine and started flipping through the pages, completely distracted. Harry managed to do the proper bump and lift but before he was even a foot away he felt a hand come down on his shoulder. 

"You picked the wrong guy, kid!" the guy said as he reached back into his back pocket to pull out a walkie-talkie, Harry saw a badge and a pair of handcuffs hidden under the overcoat and panicked. _He's a cop!_ He realized. Harry tried to think back to his earlier training but it wasn't coming back to him so he did the only thing he could think off, he caught the guy of guard by punched in the gut and when he doubled over Harry hit him in the face, then took off running. A few people saw the scene but they all kept their distance and Harry ran as fast as he could towards where he had last seen Con and Leaf, but when he got there he didn't see them anywhere.

The whole place was so crowded and he didn't have a good view in any direction, he was too short to see anything that wasn't directly in front of him. Harry felt like a child who lost his mommy at the mall. _I have to find the others _He thought as he looked around and spotted a table nearby, he quickly jumped up on it and looked around, things looked so much different now that he could see over people's heads. He still didn't see Con, Leaf or Max anywhere, but he could see people with walkie-talkies walking around searching for him, it would only be seconds before they spotted him. Harry gave up his search for the others and started looking around for an exit but they were in the middle of the shopping center. One of the officers had spotted him and they were all moving towards him now. _Stop panicking and think! _His Con voice demanded. Harry looked around at every stall he could see until he spotted it, the shop he had been staring at when Con told him to go after the man in the overcoat.

He jumped off the table and started running towards it, he knew that the officers were closing in around him and getting closer by the second. He was bumping into people and squeezing through places no adult possibly could. He managed to get over to the store before any of the Cops could reach him and continued down the aisle, trying his hardest to remember the way they had come in, but all he could remember was the stores that he had passed_. Ice cream shop at the corner, then the shoe store, and the candy shop at the opposite end, straight down. _Harry thought as he ran past the stores. He knew the exit couldn't be much further, then he saw it, his way out, except there were two cops standing there waiting for him. Harry turned around and froze, there were three more cops walking towards him. None of them had spotted him yet but there would be no way to get past them, and Harry didn't see any stores he could duck into. He considered his situation _I can't hide, and I can't just stand here…What can I do?_ He glanced back at the two cops near the exit, _I could always go through him, _His Con voice thought. Harry thought about the cuffsand where he would end up if he were caught_, they'll send me back to an orphanage… or worst..._Harry knew. He worked up his courage and took off running towards the Cops by the door. They didn't see him coming until he was only a few feet away and even then, they didn't know what to do. Harry was running past them and out of the shopping center before they could realize what was happening. It was already dark outside and Harry could hear them right behind him as he raced through the parking lot. He risked a glance behind him and saw three of them chasing him, and one overweight cop bent over catching his breath a few feet behind them. When he reached the end of the parking lot Harry didn't stop running, and apparently neither did they. He could still hear someone behind him, calling for him to stop. Harry risked another glance behind him and saw that the others had fallen back and now there was just one young pimply faced security guard after him. Harry knew that he wouldn't be able to continue running like this for much longer, and the security guard definitely had the advantage here. Harry looked at his surroundings and saw that there was an alley up ahead, if he could just make it there hopefully he would be able to ditch this rent-a-cop.

* * *

Scott Jacobs saw the boy with black hair a few feet away and still running towards him, and he wasn't sure what to do. _This kid can't be more than 10 years old, _Scott thought, remembering his boss telling him only to use force as a last resort. The kid was past him before he could think of anything else to do. Scott saw the undercover officers running towards him,_ if this kid gets away, I'll never hear the end of it,_ _and they already think I'm incompetent as it is, _he thoughtas he started running after the kid, _but if I am the one to catch him they'll have to start showing me some respect. _

Scott had only started working at the shopping center a few weeks ago, and they all treated him like a screw up, just because he was only 18 years old – well, maybe it did have something to do with that little food court incident but that was _not _his fault! Neither was that shoe store incident, or the thing at the ice cream shop – but that was all behind him now, as soon as he caught this kid, they would all have to admit that he wasn't a screw up.

Scott knew that his "Partner" had stopped running a while back, and now even the cops were starting to fall back. Scott remembered their condescending tones when he had talked to him, he couldn't wait to hear them congratulate him. He was only half a block behind the kid and definitely closing in. Then in a desperate move the kid turned down a nearby alley, and Scott felt excitement run through him, _dead end kid! _Scott knew that there was a huge chained fence at the end of that alley, there was no way this kid would be able to climb it, at least not before he caught him.

Scott turned the corner into the alley and was shocked to see that the kid wasn't there. _He must be hiding, _Scott thought as he spotted a large industrial size trashcan sitting nearby, it was the only place large enough for him to hide. He walked towards it quickly, hoping to have the kid by the time the cops got here. Scott got closer to the trashcan, and when he reached it, he ripped the lid off hoping to scare the kid. _He had better be scared after making me run all this way, _Scott thought as he looked inside the trashcan. He didn't see the kid. He tried lifting the lid on the other side of the trashcan but he wasn't on that side either.

_He must be in here somewhere_ Scott thought, _there's no way he made it over that fence! _"Get out here kid." He called, but he didn't get a response, "If you make me come in there, I am gonna kick your ass." He called. He knew that he wasn't allowed to do any such thing, but the kid didn't know that. After another moment Scott sighed, he started rolling up his sleeves and then stopped, _the kid is inside, I know he is, so why not just leave him in there let the cops dig him out. _Scott was starting to like this plan more and more. It only took a few more seconds for them to arrive, and when they did, they found the young security guard leaning against the trashcan with an extremely smug look on his face.

"What happened?" the female officer asked.

"Well I chased the kid down." Scott said with an annoyingly smug tone to go with the look, "He's hiding in there." He gestured to the trashcan and then looked at the officers as if he were expecting them to break into applause any minute now.

"Move." The male officer ordered rudely, "That little brat still has my wallet." He said angrily as he ripped the lids back open and then rolled up his sleeves. "Come out here kid." He started tossing garbage bags out of the trashcan and moving things around. Scott was glad that he had decided not to go after the kid himself, the stuff in that trashcan looked very unsanitary. He just stood back and watched, waiting for the officer to find the kid. After another minute of trash digging the officer stopped and turned around.

"Is this some kinda joke?" he rounded on Scott with an angry look on his face and the smug smile immediately dropped.

"What?" Scott was confused, but the officer didn't seem in the mood to explain, "I mean, no, sir, this isn't a joke." Scott answered in a slightly stunned voice.

"Come here." The officer said, "Come here!" he demanded when Scott hesitated. Scott rushed over with a horrible feeling rising in his gut, "Look inside, and tell me what you see."

Scott looked inside and felt all the blood drain from his face. _The kids gotta be there… there is no way he made it over that fence! _Scott thought frantically as he started to shift things around inside the trashcan, but there was no one there.

"He was here, I know he was!" Scott's smug attitude was replaced with a sense of panic, "he couldn't have made it over that fence!" _It's like the kid just vanished! _Scott thought. He didn't notice the manhole cover on the other side of the alley that was still slightly askew.

* * *

Harry walked through the sewer tunnels completely shaken up. He hadn't realized that he was still holding the cops wallet until he stopped to catch his breath. He slipped it into his pocket and started walking home, barely noticing the writing on the walls as he passed it. His thoughts were racing frantically through his head _he was a cop! How could he be a cop? If I hadn't run…that was close, too close. If I hadn't found that alley….way too close. And where were the others? They must be worried sick…_Harry considered that for a moment…_no…they wouldn't be worried sick…they probably wouldn't be worried at all…or at least Con wouldn't be….the others...I'm not sure about them. But where were they? Con said to meet him there after I lifted the guys-cops-wallet. _Harry thought._ No, he didn't say he'd meet you there, he just said to go get the guy's wallet,_ his Con voice reminded him. _but then…where was I supposed to meet them? _Harry wondered as he finally reached the house and climbed back up into the basement. He immediately ran upstairs to see if the others had returned and found them all sitting in complete silence in the living room. 

Link was the first one to notice him, "Lightning!" He called out, sounding surprised and delighted to see Harry. All the others looked up at him.

"Hey!" Dozer called as well, seemingly just as surprised as Link was.

"Lightning," Max said, "We thought you had been caught!"

"What happened?" Leaf asked curiously. Harry put the cops wallet on the table and explained everything that had happened since they last saw him.

"What about you guys?" Harry asked once he was finished, "How did you get away?" he looked back and forth between Max, Leaf and Con. Leaf shot him Con a look that Harry couldn't quite read.

"Well, they weren't looking for us." Con said, "We were able to walk right out the front door." Con finished. Harry nodded and looked around, there seemed to be some tension in the room that he couldn't explain, he just dismissed it, _I guess we're all a bit shaken up, _Harry thought.

"It's getting late," Con said as he glanced down at his watch, "I think we could all use a little rest." He said as he stretched his arms to emphasize his point.

Harry couldn't agree more as he stood up along with the others and started making his way up to his room. The others quickly bid him good night as they all started to drift off to their rooms. Harry was standing with his hand on his doorknob when a thought occurred to him. _Maybe I wasn't supposed to meet them,_ his Con voice said, _But that doesn't make any sense…. _Harry thought with his hand still on the doorknob. He wanted to dismiss it all, to walk into his room and just go to sleep, but something was stopping him, _it makes perfect sense, that would explain all the tension I just felt, why they weren't waiting for me. _His Con voice rationalized. They _wouldn't do that to me… _Harry argued weakly. _Wouldn't they? _His Con voice wondered _this was all probably just another one of their tests. Con could probably spot a cop from a mile away, with or without the uniform…could it really be a coincidence that he told me to go lift a cops wallet? Or that they all seemed to just disappear? And what about that look Leaf gave Con, and all that tension downstairs…? _His Con voice asked, and Harry knew it was true. _They set me up… _

Harry turned around and started walking back towards the living room. He had noticed that Con and Leaf had stayed behind when all the others went up to their rooms. He needed to talk to Con, _I need to know for sure,_ Harry thought as he walked through the hall towards the staircase, but he slowed down as he got closer, he could hear voices downstairs. He got as close to the stairs as he could while still being able to hide in the shadows.

_

* * *

_

"What's wrong?" Con asked impatiently, he did not have the time or patients for this.

"Nothing." Leaf said curtly, but Con obviously wasn't buying it.

"Leaf…What's wrong?" he hoped his calm tone might get her to talk.

She looked down, "We set him up…" she said quietly.

"What is with you lately?" Con asked angrily, "Are you developing some type of conscience or something?" he demanded. Leaf continued silently staring down at her lap. "I thought you got rid of that a long time ago."

"All of us can't just shut off our emotions," Leaf snapped angrily, looking up at him. "Not all of us are as good at that as you." she tried to regain her composure.

"And yet, you seem to be the only one having a problem with it." Con snapped back. "He needed to learn….and now he has." Con said gesturing down at the wallet that still sat in the middle of the table and started to get up and walk away.

She couldn't accept that, "You know what would have happened if he had gotten caught!" Leaf stood up too.

"But he didn't! He's fine. He has to be able to pull his own weight, and if he can't, then he belongs in orphanage. I don't have the time or the patients to keep coddling him." Con looked at her with a disgusted look on his face, "I don't know what your problem is and right now I really don't care. Just fix it." Con stormed off, leaving Leaf alone in the living room with a shocked look on her face.

* * *

Harry watched Con storm off with a look very similar to Leafs. _They set me up, they…they really set me up! _Harry could feel the anger building inside him as he turned back and started walking towards his room. _That's it…I'm out of here. _Harry thought as he pushed his door open roughly and went straight for his bed. He lifted up his mattress and pulled all of his money out, then reached under the bed and grabbed his bag. He had already taken Link's advice and kept everything He really wanted to keep packed up under his bed, just in case they ever had to abandon the house quickly. Harry paced around his room coming up with a plan. _Wait another hour, until they're all asleep then slip out the front door. _Harry considered what Con had said about him being able to leave whenever he wanted to. Harry had realized that wasn't true a long time ago, _but what will they do when they find out I'm missing? _He wondered as he continued to pace. For the next hour, Harry considered possible scenarios about what might happen next. 

Once Harry finally felt it was safe to go downstairs, he grabbed his bag and quietly began to creep through the hallways. When he got to the top of the stairs he cautiously glanced down to check if Leaf was still there, but she must've gone to sleep already. Harry walked down the stairs as quietly as he could. Ever creak in the floor boards sounded like a gunshot to him, until he finally made it to the front door. Harry paused and took a look back at yet another home he was abandoning. Despite everything the gang had put him through, he had really grown to like this old place. Harry took a deep breath and forced himself to walk out into the cold night.

He was almost halfway across the overgrown front yard when a voice from the shadows stopped him in his tracks. "Going somewhere, _Lightning_?" Con asked as he slipped out of the shadows like some sort of ghost.

It took him a moment to find his voice but once he did, it was full of defiance, "My name is _Harry_. I'm leaving." He didn't know where he got the courage to say that, but he started walking towards the gates to emphasize his point. He only got to take a few steps before Con was blocking his way.

"And, why is that, _Harry_?" He said the name in the same condescending tone he had used to say 'Lightning'.

"When you want to have conversations about setting people up, you should probably do it in private." Harry said bitterly as he tried to side step the older boy, but Con wasn't having that.

"So you heard," Con wasn't impressed. "Well, I'll tell you what I told Leaf. There are some lessons you need to learn for yourself, things that we can't teach you."

"Like what?" Harry asked, "How to outrun a bunch of cops?"

"Among other things," Con looked down at Harry with an appraising gaze. "You needed to know that when it comes down to it, no one is going to be there to help you. If you ever get caught we aren't going to bail you out…you'll be on your own." Con said with finality in his tone.

"That's nice to know." Harry tried to get past him again.

"Tell me something kid, where do you plan to go?" he asked curiously, "Where are going to live? Are you going to keep pick pocketing to survive?" he asked as if it were the stupidest idea he had ever heard, "How much longer do you think you can do that before you get caught? Then what?"

Harry hadn't considered any of that. His plan basically stopped after walking through that gate, but he tried not to show Con how unsure he was. "We didn't bring you here so we could be friends. You don't trust us to 'be there for you', and that's fine. It's actually a good thing, because you're not supposed to." Con began to circle Harry, "If there is one thing you should have learnt by now, it's that you can't trust anybody. Not me, not Link or Max or Dozer, not even Leaf, because when the time comes for them to choose between saving you or saving their own skin, who do you think they're gonna choose?" Con asked as he came back to stand in front of Harry. "You can leave right now, but I promise you, the same goes for everyone you will ever meet." Con stood aside to illustrate his point. "At least with us you know the score." He turned and started walking back towards the house. "It's your decision though." Con called as he walked into the house without a glance back.

Harry didn't know how long he stood outside frozen in the same place. It was around 3 AM when he walked back into his room, cold and numb. He slid his bag back under his bed and hid the money under the mattress again, before lying down under his covers. He stared up at the ceiling blankly for a few more hours. The sun was just starting rise when he finally fell asleep.


	6. The Difference

Disclaimer: this JKR's world, I am just borrowing it.

_The Difference _

Harry sat at the top of the staircase staring into space. Over the past two weeks, he had changed. It wasn't a drastic change or something anyone could really pinpoint, but they all noticed it. He was just a little colder, a bit less trusting. It was as if he had lost the last of his innocence and taken one-step closer to becoming one of them. Ever since Con set him up Harry felt as if someone had turned on a light and for the first time in his life he was seeing the world around him the way it really was. Utterly disappointing.

Harry snapped out of his stupor when he heard someone coming from behind him. "Lightning, what are you doing?" Link asked as he plopped himself down beside Harry.

"Con and Dozer gave me the day off." Harry told him. He had been relieved when they told him he would have a break. He hadn't slept through the night in weeks. He always ended up back on these stairs, staring into space.

"And you decided to spend your day off just sitting here?" Link said slowly, "You are the weirdest kid I have ever met." He decided with a laugh. "Don't you ever do anything for fun?"

"Yes," Harry said a little defensively.

"Like…?" Link asked. Harry knew that Link wouldn't consider any of the things he liked to do 'fun', so he didn't even try to come up with an answer. Link just shook his head and pulled out a deck of cards. "You know how to play Black Jack?" He asked with sly grin.

Harry shook his head politely while trying to think of a good reason to excuse himself but he couldn't come up with anything. He finally settled for asking, "You walk around with a deck of cards in your pocket?" in an incredulous tone.

"It's simple," Link ignored Harry's question, "All you have to do is get twenty one." Link went on to explain the rules. Over the next ten minutes they played seven rounds and Harry only won once, he was pretty sure it was just because Link let him.

"How did you get so good at this?" Harry wondered aloud.

After a short pause he said, "My dad taught me." in a tone that told Harry he didn't want to talk about it but Harry was interested now. He had never heard any of the others talk about their families and he had never found the right moment to ask. It was as if there was some unspoken agreement that this subject was off limits.

"How did you meet Con?" Harry asked. He hoped that Link would be more forthcoming with this subject. Link was quiet for nearly two minutes, and Harry had resigned himself to the idea that he wasn't going to get any new information out of Link any time soon.

"I lifted his wallet." Link said in a voice that was barely audible, and then stopped. Harry glanced up from his cards, waiting for him to continue. "I had been on the streets for about 3 weeks, and doing fairly well for myself considering. I was mostly pick-pocketing or doing card tricks." Link had started shuffling the cards around absentmindedly. "I was on my way back 'home' when I saw two guys walking down the street in front of me, one of them slipped some money into his wallet, and I thought they would be easy targets. I lifted his wallet without a problem, but when I looked inside there was no cash. Just a note with my name on it, a time, and an address." _That must have been creepy_, Harry thought as he tried to imagine what he would have done if they had approached him like that.

"At first I was suspicious and more than a little freaked out," Link said as if he had read Harry's mind. He had a faraway look in his eyes, "But the more I thought about it the more interesting it sounded, I mean if they had wanted to catch me or hurt me they obviously could have done it when I lifted the wallet, so they must've wanted something else. It took a while but I eventually convinced myself to go and when I got there the two guys I saw earlier were waiting for me. Con and Dozer told me that they had been watching me for a while and they thought I had some skills. They made their offer, and the rest is history." Link finished

"Why did you accept?" Harry asked slowly, "I mean, it sounds like you were doing fine on your own."

Link shrugged with a slight frown, "I was eight years old. Even back then, I knew that I wasn't going to last much longer on my own. I was just a kid." Link looked up at Harry for the first time as the serious look on his face was washed away and replaced with a sly grin, "Besides, it never hurts to have Con and Dozer on your side." Link said with a wink and went back to the game. Harry wasn't really paying attention as they continued to play, he was too busy thinking about what he had just learned,_ so Con and Dozer were together before Link joined the group. Where were Leaf and Max? _Harry was about to ask when Con walked through the door.

"Link, Lightning, go get the others," Con said as he walked up the stairs and quickly past them, "Tell everyone to meet in the living room in five minutes." He called over his shoulder as he disappeared down the hall.

Five minutes later Con stood in front of the others like a battle worn commander addressing his troops. "The Rogue has a new job for us." He said in a weary voice. Harry looked around at the others as he felt the atmosphere in the room go from calm to tense in an instant. They were all giving Con their undivided attention.

"Um, who's the Rogue?" Harry asked hesitantly. He hated not knowing what was going on. They all turned to look at him, and Harry could feel the blood starting to rush to his face.

"The Rogue is the only person we answer to." Con said with a touch of reverence in his voice that Harry had never heard from him before. "He controls everything." Con added simply.

"'Everything'?" Harry asked doubtfully. _What's that supposed to mean? _He glanced around again.

"Yes, everything." Max answered, "Every pickpocket, hustler and thief in this part of the city reports to The Rogue. He's our leader."

Harry tried to digest that information as he waited for her to elaborate. When no one said anything, he asked the most prominent question running through his head, "How?" Harry said skeptically. _How could one person control all that crime? _He wondered.

Link sat forward, as if he were about to divulge a big secret, "Lightning, there's a whole network of crime throughout this city that most people don't even know exists," Link informed him. "And for the most part they never will."

"And it's all controlled by one man?" Harry asked, still not believing.

"Yes and no," Leaf answered, "He doesn't _personally_ do everything." When Harry still didn't seem to understand she explained further. "Think of it like the military. The Rogue is the commander and chief; he's the person who makes all the big decisions. Then there are his Generals, who are each in charge of making sure things go smoothly in their assigned sections of the city. Then there're the Lieutenants, who are in charge of doing big jobs. Majors who do things that aren't so big, and so on, all the way down to the wannabe gangsters and petty thieves." Leaf said with a dismissive wave of her hand. "The Rogue has eyes and ears everywhere, and eventually everything makes its way back up to him," she explained. Harry still looked a little skeptical, but he was starting to understand.

At first he wasn't sure what to say. This whole concept seemed so unbelievable to him, like something he might see in a movie, but never expected in real life. "How does he keep them all in check?" he finally asked, "I mean they're _crooks_!" _don't you mean '_we', his Con voice asked him cynically. It always startled Harry to hear a voice that sounded so much like Con's in his head, while the real person was standing right across from him._ I_ _am not a _crook, Harry answered, not wanting to be put in the same category as the people Leaf was talking about. _What are you then? A 'victim of circumstance'?_ It asked mockingly, _what makes you any different from them?_ Harry ignored the question, not wanting to admit that he didn't know the answer. He focused his attention on the others.

"He offers them protection," Max said matter-of-factly, "for a fee of course. They give him ten percent of whatever they get or they do him favors." _Protection from what?_He wondered, but didn't get a chance to ask.

"Like the favor he wants us to do for him now." Con rejoined the conversation, steering it back towards the original topic.

"What does he want us to do?" Dozer asked Con.

"He wants us to break into a house up on Pinewood Ave. and steal a painting." Con answered.

"A painting? Why?" Harry interrupted again.

"I didn't ask, he didn't tell." Con said in a tone that told Harry not to interrupt again. "Apparently the man who lives there collects 'items of interest'. The Rogue says we can take anything we want; we just have to get him the painting. He wants this to look like a random smash and grab job." Con looked around at the others for reactions.

"It sounds easy enough." Leaf said cautiously, knowing that it couldn't be that straightforward.

"It should be….There's just one problem," Con added slowly, "We only have a short window of time."

"How short?" Dozer asked.

Con glanced down, "Were going to have about ten minutes to get in and out before the cops show up." He told them, causing the others to start talking all at once. "_Ten minutes_…_"_ "There's no way..." "Has he lost his mind…" "How does he expect us to-" Con's sharp whistle silenced them all.

"I know it's going to be tough, but it's the only chance we're gonna get!" Con said loudly, "The painting is going to be moved to the collector's house in America tomorrow morning. The owner is going to a play tonight, so this will be our only chance to grab it." He waited to see if there would be anymore protest, but they all remained silent.

"We have twelve hours to prepare." Con unrolled a large sheet of paper and laid it out over the table. _Blueprints, _Harry realized as he looked down at the outline of a two-story mansion. "He's going out at 8:00. Once we're in, we won't have any time to waste, The Rogue is going to set up some distractions with the cops to buy us some extra time, but I still want us out of there long before they come."

They all gathered around the table to look over the house, "How are we going in?" Max asked.

Con smirked and answered her with his usual confidence, "We're going straight through the front door."

Harry felt his whole body buzzing with nerves as they walked through the tunnels. He knew that he wouldn't be doing much on this 'mission'. _I'm just the lookout,_ Harry reminded himself, as he tried to calm down. He didn't notice that Link had fallen behind the others to walk next to him, _we don't even know why 'The Rogue' wants the stupid painting for! _Harry thought irritably.

"Nervous?" Link asked unnecessarily to get Harry's attention. His emotions were written all over his face.

"I'm fine," Harry lied.

"We've done this plenty of times before." Link said in a voice that reminded Harry of a salesman trying to convince a customer to buy something he wasn't sure would work. "We know what we're doing." Harry just nodded, not at all reassured.

"What do you know about 'Rogue'?" Harry asked, trying to take his mind off what they were about to do.

Link glanced at him, considering the question, "Well for starters, 'The Rogue' isn't a name, it's a title that gets passed on when a new Rogue…_replaces_ an old one. The last Rogue was replaced a few weeks ago by the one we have now." Harry could guess what Link meant by 'replaced', _the new Rogue has to kill the old one to take his place _Harry thought grimly.

"That's why the cops have been stepping up security around town lately, it's been years since we had a new Rogue," Link said knowingly, "People are scrambling to get on his good side, and impress him. That's why there has been so much more crime lately.

"Things don't seem much worse than they were before." Harry remembered hearing his Uncle Vernon ranting about the crime rates when he lived with them.

"True," Link agreed, "The old Rogue was getting lazy, and sloppy. He stopped doing his job. If Bastian hadn't taken over someone else would have, it was only a matter of time, and everyone knew it."

Harry found it disturbing to hear Link talk about killing the same way he talked about the weather. "Bastian?" he asked, trying to shake the feeling.

"Sebastian Graham, the new Rogue. I doubt anyone expected it to be him, but it's not really surprising either, he's always been ambitious." Link said with an appreciative tone.

"But aren't people mad about it, I mean the old Rogue's friends, they must want to get even." Harry asked, confused.

Link laughed, "The Rogue didn't have "friends" he had partners and associates. Things are actually starting to settle down a little bit. I doubt Bastian is going anywhere."

"But what about the police?" Harry asked, "They must know about all of this." When Link nodded, Harry continued, "If 'The Rogue' is so big in the crime world why don't they do something to stop him?"

"The Rogue has been around for decades, and they haven't been able to permanently get rid of him yet. They must know it's easier to deal with him. Even if they do get rid of the current Rogue, there will always be someone there to take his place. Not to mention the fact that he has moles and crooked cops all over. I doubt they could take him down if they tried." Link answered confidently. Harry stopped asking questions while he tried to process all this information, and wondered what he had really gotten himself into. This whole thing obviously went much deeper than he originally thought.

"Lightning, Link," Con called them up with the rest of the group, as he stopped in front of the ladder that would lead up to street level. Con let the others go up before he and Harry, then turned back to give Harry his final instructions. He handed him binoculars and a radio that matched the ones that the others were carrying, "Just press this button while you talk, then make sure you let it go and wait for a reply, and don't change this frequency," Con demonstrated as he talked. "All you have to do is watch the streets, if you see any cops coming towards the house or anything suspicious, warn us." Con started to turn towards the stairs and then paused, "And don't come in the house, unless it's an absolute emergency." Harry followed Con up the ladder and quickly slid the lid back over the sewer.

Harry ran to catch up with the others, who had paused at the end of the alley. Harry could feel all the tension from the past twelve hours suddenly pressing down on him, like a palpable force. A fuse had been lit and now they were just a few seconds away from detonation. They watched in silence as a black town car pulled up in front of the house they would soon be breaking into, and the driver got out and walked up to the door. He knocked on the door and then politely took a step back. They only had to wait a few seconds before the door was opened and they got their first look at the collector, he was a man in his mid forties, wearing an expensive black suit, and not at all what Harry was expecting. He thought the collector would be an eccentric old man, not the handsome man he saw sliding into the back of the town car. Within seconds, the car was driving out of site, its passenger completely oblivious of what was about to happen.

_Boom,_ Harry thought grimly as the car drove out of site, and as if some silent signal had been given they all walked out of the ally as one. To anyone looking out at the street, it would seem like a normal group of kids, probably on their way home. If someone were really paying attention, they might notice how odd it was that they were all carrying duffle bags, and wearing black clothes, but they were just kids.

They closed the distance between the ally and the house quicker than Harry would have thought possible. The moment they stepped through the gate Harry broke off from the group, as they all raced across the yard towards the front door. Dozer was the first to reach the door, using his momentum to put his fist through the stained glass window adjacent to the door and unlock the door from within. He pushed the door open and without a word they all went to do the jobs they had been assigned.

While the others raced towards the house Harry hurriedly went over to the tree he was supposed to be keeping watch from. By the time he reached a spot that would give him a good view of both ends of the street, the others had already disappeared inside the house. Harry took a deep breath, _now I wait._

Max followed Con up a set of winding stairs that led to the second floor landing, where their eyes were immediately drawn to the elegant doors at the opposite end of the hall. _They might as well put up a neon sign saying, "The safe is in here!"_ Max thought with a slight smirk, _this is going to be too easy. _Con and Max ran down the dark hallway as quickly and quietly as possible, despite Max's confidence they both knew that something could go wrong at any moment. They couldn't be sure that the house was completely empty.

"What do you see Link?" Con asked over the radio.

Link walked past the stairs and straight down the hallway he had memorized, on his way to complete his part of this job.

He reached his destination quicker than the others, and slipped inside the security room without a hitch. He didn't take much time looking around the high tech room, instead he slipped into a chair in front of the computer that was surrounded by video monitors, showing his different parts of the house. He glanced over them to make sure there wasn't any immediate danger in the house. It only took his a few seconds to find Dozer and Leaf's part of the house, and tell them they were clear. Then he focused his attention on the door that Max and Con were currently making their way towards. His eyes paused on the room they were about to walk into, slightly caught by surprise, but there were no apparent threats in there either. His eyes roamed around the monitors. He knew that the safe they needed to break into would be inside the collectors study, but none of the monitors were showing him what was in that room.

"What do you see Link?" He heard Con's voice ask over the radio.

He picked up his radio, "Everything's clear in the next room, but I can't see what's inside the study."

"Is there anything you can do?"

"Nothing that will help, this system is full of firewalls." He said as he tried to access the security protocols with no luck.

"Then we're going in blind." Con said and with a sigh.

"The study will be at the back of the room, to your right." Link answered, knowing that there was nothing more that he could do. This _could get complicated; if they set off the wrong alarms in there the safe could go into lock down_. Link thought as he watched Con and Max step into the next room and the door closed behind them. They both paused, looking just as surprised as he had been when he first saw the room.

_Now it's time for the fun part,_ Link thought as he picked up the keyboard he had been working on and smashed it into the nearest monitor.

Leaf and Dozer both turned left towards the dining room. They had been assigned the smash and grab part of this job. All they had to do was make it all look like a random break in so nobody got suspicious.

They both opened their bags and started to look around the room for anything that might be valuable, at once Leaf started opening drawers and rummaging through everything she could find. She knew that the alarm in the house had already been sounded but the silence throughout the rest of the house was making every noise sound like a gunshot. She tried to focus on finding the most valuable things in the room, anything they would be able to sell later on.

Dozer was focusing more on the smashing portion of this job, and bagging anything that caught his eye. He was definitely going for quantity instead of quality, Leaf noted, as she saw him empty an entire drawer into his bag. She knew that they only had a little time to go through as many rooms as they could, so she glanced around the room one more time before walking off into the rest of house.

The moment the door closed behind them it felt like they had left the house and entered a museum. Max and Con paused for a second to look around in awe. Every surface in the room was covered with priceless artifacts, from ancient Egyptian vases to priceless tapestries hanging on the walls and countless objects on display inside glass cases.

"Wow." gasped Max, as her wide eyes traveled around the room. It had looked big on the blueprints, but not even Con had expected it to be this large.

Con recovered from the shock first. "Come on," He said as he started running down aisle after aisle, slowing as they reached the door to the study.

"You ready?" He asked Max, as he felt the tension rising in him.

"Yeah." Max nodded, swallowing nervously, "Let's go." They opened the door carefully, going straight for the painting behind the desk, the most likely place to hide the safe.

The cops would be here within minutes, and time was of the essence. Max tried not to dwell on the irony of hiding a painting inside a safe that was hidden behind a painting. She only looked at the steel door for a second, confirming what she already knew. One of the few things provided with the blueprints of the house was the make and model of the safe she would be cracking. She went through her bag and started pulling out lock picks, wielding them like a doctor with a scalpel, she delicately twisted them into the lock, waiting to feel the tumblers slide into place and hear the click of the lock being disengaged. It took her longer than expected, and she could feel Con behind him getting impatient, but he knew better than to rush it...Click.

She held his breath and opened the safe. No alarms sounded and Max let out a relieved sigh. She opened the safe more and he and Con got their first look inside. Con reached in and grabbed the canister that held the painting, and Max was tempted to take it out and see what they had just gone through so much trouble for, but she got distracted by something much better. An intricately laced necklace, that looked like it was made from crystal, with a very small globe at the end, caught her attention. This would definitely make it worth the trouble. He reached for it, but her hand seemed to move right through it, as if it were an optical illusion. She started to grab for it again, but-

"Did you hear that?" Con asked, suddenly on alert. Max strained to listen but nothing seemed out of the ordinary. She was about to ask Con what she was supposed to be listening for when she heard it too. Footsteps, were coming from down the hallway Con and Max had used to get to the study, which also happened to be the only way out.

They looked at each other and nodded. Con quickly hit the light switch and grabbed a paperweight off the desk, while Max got under the desk. They both knew that things were about to get complicated, as the footsteps got closer. Con had his back flat against the wall and was preparing himself for whoever was about to walk through that door. The footsteps slowed down right outside of the door, and Con tensed, waiting for them to walk in.

Harry had started to fidget as he waited for the others to come out of the house or something to happen. Everything was quiet at this time of night, the only light in the neighborhood was coming from the streetlights, _hopefully everyone is asleep,_ he thought as he looked up and down the block again. Harry nearly fell out of the tree when his radio suddenly crackled to life and he heard Con and Link's conversation.

Harry took a deep breath, wondering what was taking so long. It felt like they had been in that house for hours, even though he knew it had only been two or three minutes, and it didn't seem like they would be coming back out anytime soon. _What am I doing here?_ Harry thought as dozens of scenarios played through his head, each one worst than the last. He was so consumed with his thoughts that he almost didn't notice the flash of blue and red lights down the street that were headed towards him. The radio was in his hands before those thoughts fully registered, "Con this is Harry, you guys gotta get out of there!" he said urgently, his voice sounded odd even to his own ears. He expected an immediate reply, but nothing happened, he didn't even hear any static. _It's broken!_ He realized as the police car got closer.

He took one more look at the police car making its way towards the house, figuring it was still at least two minutes away, before climbing down the tree as quickly as he could. _RUN!_ His Con voice was screaming in his head. _What about the others? I can't just leave them!_ Harry thought as he reached the ground. _Why not? They wouldn't come back for you!_ The voice replied, causing Harry to pause. _They would leave you in an instant_, the voice continued, as Harry stood frozen with indecision. He knew that if he was going to help the others he needed to start moving, but he couldn't help thinking that this could be his chance to get out, make a clean break from the gang and start over. He thought for one more second, before making his decision.

Harry ran.

Dozer's head snapped up as he heard the front door open and slam shut. He and Leaf both moved quickly towards the alcove knowing that whoever had just come in would have to walk past it before they reached the stairs. He saw Leaf position herself on the opposite side of the alcove as the footsteps got closer. The moment the person walked in they both sprang into action. Dozer got to him first and was just about to knock the guy unconscious when he heard Leaf call out.

"Wait!" she said as she realized who Dozer had grabbed. Dozer's fist paused in midair as he was about to deliver a blow that would have knocked his victim unconscious for hours, and he actually looked to see who he had captured.

"Lightning, what are you doing in here?" she demanded, as Dozer let go of the boy, who gasped for breathe and looked at them with a frantic look in his wide eyes.

"Police!" he gasped, "I saw the lights. They're down the street, coming fast." Leaf had her radio out before Harry finished talking, and tried to call the others, but for some reason she couldn't get through, and neither could Dozer. "They must be broken or something." Harry told them, but they were already moving, with their bags full of things they had picked up around the house.

"Dozer, get Link. Lightning, come with me." Leaf commanded, leaving no room for argument. They split up at the stairs, with Dozer continuing down the hallway, as Harry and Leaf went up. Even with the heavy bag on her back, Harry was having a hard time keeping up with Leaf, who was already halfway down the hall by the time he reached the second floor landing. Without hesitation she went straight into the room while Harry raced to catch up. Leaf stopped for a second inside the room to get her bearings and look around. She knew that Max and Con would be in the collector's study, and started running down aisle after aisle until she found the door. She ran towards it, there was no reason to be cautious now; they needed to get the others and get out.

She slowed down as she reached the door, feeling that there was something wrong, but she didn't have time to hesitate, she pushed open the door and walked into the darkened room. Immediately sensing danger she ducked down and felt glass shatter above her as someone standing next to the door brought it down as quickly as they could right where her head had been a few seconds ago. Before he could make another move she grabbed his arm and used his height and position to flip him over onto his back with a sickening thud as he landed on top of the glass shards. Before she could move away, his leg shot out and hit her squarely in the stomach causing her to stumbled back, barely keeping her balance, and giving him the time he needed to spring back to his feet.

Before anyone could attack again the lights turned on and Leaf was able to see the identity of her opponent.

"Leaf? What are you doing up here?" Max asked from over by the light switch, as she watched Con and Leaf drop their fighting stances. Before Leaf could answer Harry came charging into the room. "We gotta go." Harry told them all, not noticing the tension in the room.

"Cops." Leaf said simply.

"Let's go." Con said walking out of the room with a canister that Harry assumed had the painting inside.

"Cops?" Max demanded, "I thought we were going to have ten minutes!" Max said as she stuffed her equipment into her bag and followed Leaf out the door. Harry was about to go too when the gleam of something in the safe caught his eye. He looked back and saw a necklace like nothing he had ever seen before. He couldn't look away from it, _it'll only take a second_, he decided, as he took a step towards the safe, but before he could take another a hand caught his arm.

"Come on Lightning!" Max said pulling Harry out of the room. Harry hadn't noticed how far ahead the others had gotten, but Con and Leaf were already running through the door. Harry and Max had to race to catch up with them, and only reached them as they went down the stairs. Harry could see flashing lights outside and loud bangs at the front door. It sounded like the police might beat it down any second. They weren't going through the front door though, Harry realized when Con turned and went the same way that Dozer had gone when they split up. Barely a second after Harry turned the corner into the kitchen and out of sight, he heard the loudest bang of all, and knew that the police were finally in the house.

They all ran through the kitchen door and into the backyard. Harry heard the back door burst open again just before he made it through the gate leading into a narrow garbage filled passage. Harry saw Max turn left while Con and Leaf turned right so that they would all have a better chance to get away. Without thinking Harry turned left and went after Max, hoping that the officer would go after Con and Leaf, with no such luck. Harry could hear someone behind him as he ran out onto the sidewalk and continued to follow Max. Now that they were out of the passage and out on the street again, Harry started gaining on Max, but the officer didn't seem to be falling behind. Harry could hear the man behind them calling for them to stop. They were nearly a block away from the house when Harry pulled in front of Max. The girl seemed to be out of breath and falling behind but Harry's only thoughts were about getting to the nearest alley and getting rid of their pursuer. Harry was only a half block away from the alley they had originally come through when he heard something behind him that caused him to stop running and spin around.

The officer had grabbed Max sending them both hurling to the ground and he was now trying to cuff her. She was struggling but it was only a matter of time before the man overpowered her. _There's nothing you can do for her!_ His Con voice told him urgently, _that guy is three times your size_. Harry knew the voice was right, the best thing he could do right now was to disappear before the officer realized that he was still standing there, _I doubt Con would appreciate me leaving his sister behind,_ Harry argued with himself, once again unsure of what to do. _Con always says that if one of us is caught the others shouldn't come back for them_ the voice reminded him. Harry looked down the street, knowing that he could make it down into the sewers before the officer even remembered that he was there. He took one-step towards the alley, and then another with Con's voice yelling at him to keep going…but he couldn't do it.

Harry turned around and ran as fast as he could towards the cop. The man looked up at him in just enough time to see what was about to happen, without being able to do anything about it. Harry let the momentum carry him forward and threw all of his weight at the man causing him to tumble to the side and release his grip on Max which was all she needed to get free. However, the officer wasn't about to give up without a fight. He had grabbed onto Harry's leg stopping him from getting back to his feet and then grabbing his arm before Harry could even think to throw a punch. Harry felt panic wash through him as he stared up into the man's eyes and saw the rage in them, and then suddenly his face went blank and the man pitched over. Harry looked up to see Max standing behind the man with a satisfied smirk on her face. Harry crawled out of the officers' grip and then pulled himself to his feet, slightly stunned by what had just happened.

"Don't worry; he'll wake up in a while. He'll have a headache, but he'll be fine." Max told him, mistaking the look on Harry's face for concern. Harry just nodded and let Max lead him away and down to the sewers. They walked in silence, with Harry wondering where he had found the courage to do what he had just done, and Max lost in her own thoughts. It wasn't until they were a block away from home that Max finally asked the question that had been weighing on her mind.

"Why did you do it?" She asked, finally breaking the silence. "Why did you come back for me?" She asked quietly.

"I don't know," Harry said honestly, "I guess I came back because…I couldn't leave." Harry answered slowly.

They fell back into silence, until they were directly under the house, "I wouldn't have gone back." Max admitted, "I would have left you there." She kept her eyes straight ahead. Harry knew that she was telling the truth. Max would have abandoned him without a second thought the way part of him had been planning to do.

"I know." Harry answered simply, letting Max go ahead of him, _I guess that's the difference between them and me_, Harry realized,_ I still have a conscious._

**Note: I know it seems like it is taking forever for us to get to Hogwarts/the magical world, but please just stick with me for another chapter or two. This story is about to go through some big changes.**

**Reviews: pstibbons** Leaf Granger? lol. She may seem really nice right now, but remember no one in this group is innocent. We just haven't seen her do anything very bad yet. **animeflunky** I would've left too, but poor Harry really has nowhere to go. **goldentree** I'm pretty sure I already replied to this (or I meant to) but I definitely agree that Harry is going to have to change before he goes to Hogwarts, and trust me, he will. **cherrity** I am very glad that you pointed this out. I realize that things seem to be going slow, hopefully they sped up a bit in this chapter, but you're right to say that while things seem to be progressing slowly everything is having an impact on the story and the characters. **MrsRadcliffe** if anyone reading this would like to chime in feel free to. Is determined to have a Harry/Ginny ship in this story. Personally I lean towards the Harry/Hermione ship, or Harry/OC (which it will probably be if there is a ship), but does anyone else have a preference. **lovebound111:** don't worry, Harry might change on the outside and put on a tough guy act, but inside he still has the same heart. **Miss Ravenclaw** I think they all care about each other more than they are willing to admit, but they really just look at this as a business arrangement, they will work together as long as it benefits them. **flower123:** oh, if one of them gets caught the others would immediately abandon the house. They all know that there is no loyalty once someone is caught. **msgringotts** I'm interested to see how he turns out too. **hittocerebattosai** I never planned on stopping it there, this chapter just took me a lot longer than I had expected. **petitessorcieres** Harry has done a bit of magic (did anyone pick up on it?). Harry's conscience is rather torn, so he doesn't know which side he should follow. Ms. Halliwell has nothing to do with the sisters, but she will be coming back. It was always in the plans for Stan to die, but I was sad to see him go too. **Kwangmablade** thanks, I love hearing that this story is different from all the others.

For all the others who reviewed, thank you so much. The reviews & knowing that there are people enjoying this is what keeps me writing.


	7. The Rogue

**Disclaimer**: the idea for The Rogue was inspired by the Tamora Pierce books.

**The Rogue**

The first thing Harry and Max heard when they walked through the door was a collective sigh of relief. Mirroring the night Con had set Harry up, the others once again sat in the living room waiting for the last members of their group to return. However, this time Harry knew it had been real. It was only a quick flash of emotion across Con's face, so fast and out of character that Harry almost thought he had imagined it, but he hadn't. Con had been worried.

"Hey," Link sighed, as he stood and clapped Harry on the back, and Max quietly sat between Con and Leaf. Con briefly put a hand on his sister's shoulder, taking in her wrinkled dirt covered clothes with a questioning look. She gave him a small nod, letting him know she was okay before they moved on to business as usual.

"Did you get it?" Max asked as she looked around at the others. Con reached over the side of the couch, picked up the long cylinder shaped container, and placed it on the coffee table. Harry looked down at it considering. _So this is what we went through all of that for?_ Harry thought about all the things that had happened in the last few hours. _It wasn't worth it, _he decided.

"What does it look like?" Max asked, curious to see what The Rogue had wanted so badly.

"We don't know." Con told them, pointing to the end of the canister where a lock kept the latches firmly in place. "We don't have the combination."

"Then how is The Rogue going to open it?" Harry asked, hoping they hadn't gone through all of that for nothing.

"That's not our problem," Con answered with an indifferent shrug, "he'll have to figure it out."

"So what happened?" Link asked, unable to contain his curiosity. "I was smashing up the security room when Dozer came in and said that we had to go. We were already slipping out the back when the cops pulled up." He explained.

"They responded to the alarm much quicker than we expected." Leaf said

"I thought The Rouge said we would have at least ten minutes." Link pointed out

"Maybe one of the neighbors saw us, and called it in." Dozer suggested.

"There was something wrong with the radios too." Harry pointed out. "I tried to call you guys, but it was like they were all dead."

"Or something was jamming them." Link said conspiratorially, but the others just rolled their eyes.

"When Lightning came in and told us that the cops were coming Dozer went to get Link, and Lightning and I ran upstairs to get Con and Max." Leaf glanced at Con who was sitting rigidly with his back barely touching the couch, and put her hand over her aching stomach. "There was a small misunderstanding," she said referring to their fight, "But we made it out the back door just as the cops were kicking the front door in. We split up as soon as we got outside."

"One of them followed us, but we were able to shake him off. Some kid was throwing a party a few blocks down. We went in, and as soon as the cop showed up everyone scattered." Con told them, wearing a satisfied grin, "Someone even offered us a ride out of there." he laughed.

Link looked at Max and then settled his gaze on Harry, "So what happened to you two?"

Harry looked down at his feet, suddenly feeling self-conscious when the others all turned to look at him. "We ran into an old friend." Max answered wearily, causing all eyes to turn to her. Even Harry looked up inquiringly. "Officer Peterson."

Before the name had fully left her lips, the others were clamoring to speak "What?" "I thought he was…" "How did he know…" "Who is officer-"

Con took control of the situation, letting out a sharp whistle to silence everyone. "I wish you wouldn't do that," Max told her brother, while the ringing in her ears subsided.

"What happened?" He asked her seriously.

"Peterson caught me when we were running back to the alley." she paused for a moment, "If it wasn't for Lightning I would probably be sitting in the back of a squad car right now." She glanced over at Harry, shooting him a look that clearly said that the others didn't need to know the details of it. "He came back and distracted Peterson enough for me to get loose." She grinned over at Link, "I got to kick him in the head."

Link let out a loud laugh and Con glanced over at Harry as if he were seeing him for the first time. Harry didn't notice though. Max may have been down playing it, but Harry remembered the look in Peterson's eyes. He had been out for blood. "Who is Officer Peterson?" He asked Max again. There was obviously much more to this story than he knew.

"You've met him before." Max told Harry, who was looking more confused by the second. "The night we met, you remember I was running from two cops?" she asked. Harry nodded, thinking back to that night. "Peterson was the one with the flashlight."

"It's like he has a vendetta against us," Link added, "He's been chasing after us for months."

"He doesn't really want us, he wants The Rogue." Dozer reminded them, "Peterson has made it his mission to bring down The Rogue, and now is his best chance." He looked saw Harry's confused look and explained, "There hasn't been a new rogue in nearly twenty years. Right now the Rogue is about as weak as he'll ever be."

"But why is he after you?" Harry asked while thinking to himself that what he had seen earlier definitely seemed personal, _and if it wasn't personal _before _Max kicked him in the head, it probably is now_.

"Peterson knows we're close to Sebastian," Max answered, "He thinks that if he can get to us, he can use us to get to the rogue."

"Like that'll ever happen." Link said with a yawn.

Leaf stood, "I think it's time for bed. It's been a long day."

"I couldn't agree more." Dozer said as he stretched.

"I need to take a shower," Max said, eager to get out of her dirty clothes.

"Hey," Con said, once again grabbing their attention. "You guys did a great job." He said sincerely, looking them all in the eye, "Go get some sleep, we have a busy day tomorrow." They all nodded and the group broke up, most of them heading upstairs.

"What's happening tomorrow?" Harry asked Link as they both walked up the stairs.

"You're finally going to meet the man behind the curtain."

"What?"

"The Rogue," Link said, too tired to explain the analogy. "Tomorrow we're going to see The Rogue."

"Oh," was all Harry managed to say before Link closed the door to his room.

As he continued down the hall toward his bedroom, he let his hand slip into his pocket and felt his fingers brush up against something that seemed to be both cold and warm at the same. He wrapped his fingers around it and pulled out the necklace that he had seen in the safe. Harry paused in the hallway, _how did this get in there?_ He wondered as he stared down at it in surprise. Back at the collectors mansion Max had pulled him out of the room before he had the chance to grab it. He hastily looked around to see if anybody else was in hallway, before quickly going to his room and closing the door tight, the whole time he was unable to keep his eyes off it. It was the chain of the necklace that had felt so cold in his pocket. If he didn't know any better he would think that it had been made from ice. However, the thing that held his attention was the ancient looking silver watch held at the end of the chain. On its cover was an intricate design that seemed to be continually changing before his eyes. One second he could swear that the elegant pattern created a picture of the earth, but in the next, it appeared to show a large star, until he looked at it from a different angle and it took the shape of some strange type of animal. The longer he looked at it the harder it was for him to look away, until he finally forced himself to tear his eyes away from the cover, and open it up.

On the inside, it had the basic design of an old-fashioned watch; it had two hands, and there were numbers along the edges, but that's where the comparisons stopped. Behind the numbers, there were small pictures painted on the surface, but the two hands never stopped. One hand spun around counterclockwise, as if it were counting down to something, while the wider one spun randomly. There were no gears on it to control the hands, or anything else for that matter.

Harry sat down on the bed and turned the watch over in his hands, trying to find some clue to tell him what it was supposed to do, or what it was made for. There had to be some trick to figuring it out, but after what felt like hours of staring at it Harry shoved it back in his pocket and lay back in bed. _Useless_, he thought with a frustrated sigh, as he tried to close his eyes and go to sleep.

Harry tossed and turned for hours, waiting for exhaustion to overwhelm him, but sleep wouldn't come. He looked at the clock on his dresser and saw that it was already five thirty AM, and resigned himself to another sleepless night. He threw off his covers and left his room to wander the halls that had become very familiar to him over the past few weeks. He had even discover three rooms that he hadn't known existed, including an attic at the top of the house that had become one of his favorite places to sit and think. It was covered in dust, it had a strange smell, and he had seen more than one spider up there, but it was also the only room in the house that didn't have its windows covered or boarded up.

It probably came from being forced to sleep in such a claustrophobically small space for most of his life, but Harry loved being able to look up at the sky, especially at night. He knew that he was taking the risk of being seen if anyone down on the street or in one of the other houses happened to be looking this way, but he couldn't resist. That was part of the reason why he only came up to the attic at night, and never turned on any lights or lit candles. Of course, the other part was because he wasn't sure Con would approve of him being up here, and he didn't want to draw the attention of the others now that he had finally found a place where he felt truly comfortable in his new life.

Harry sat down in front of the nearly floor length window, and after a moment's hesitation pulled out the silver watch. He wasn't sure that 'watch' was the correct thing to call it, but for now it would have to do. He stared down at it as the moonlight shone in, illuminating the watch in a way that almost seemed magical. As he sat there on the floor, Harry kept expecting something to happen, some clue or idea to fall into place that would allow him to unravel its secrets. It never happened, and Harry simply sat there waiting, until he saw the sky start to grow lighter on the horizon. He didn't know what he had been expecting, but he still felt somehow disappointed. He made his way back downstairs, but instead of going to his room, Harry went to sit on the stairs.

A few minutes after he sat down a noise from the kitchen alerted him to the fact that he wasn't the only person walking around in the early hours of the morning. He had just decided to go down and investigate, when the kitchen door opened and Leaf came out with a cup in one hand and a plate in the other. He quickly stuffed the watch into his pocket before Leaf saw it.

"Lightning?" she said looking up, as she mounted the stairs, "What are you doing up so late?" she hadn't expect anyone to be up this early.

"I couldn't sleep." He nearly cringed as the words poured out of his mouth a little too quickly. If she hadn't thought something was up before, she definitely would now. Harry just wasn't sure if he wanted the others to know about the silver watch. He had developed a certain level of trust, and he was pretty sure that none of them would try to steal it from him, but one of the things that Con was trying hard to instill in him was that he should never trust anyone fully.

"Bad dream?" she asked curiously, as she sat down beside him. She couldn't help but notice the dark circles that had been developing under his eyes for weeks. He obviously hadn't been able to sleep in a while, and it was starting to show.

"Something like that." He admitted reluctantly. It wasn't lie. He hadn't had a good dream since the night he decided to join them. Although he was starting not to feel it so much while he was awake, his subconscious mind was constantly plagued with guilt about what he was doing.

Leaf nodded, remembering her first few months on the streets, and how hard it had been for her to adapt to this lifestyle. She had been the last person to come to the group before Lightning, which is probably why she sympathized with him the most. All of the others had practically been born and raised on the streets, or close to them. It seemed that the older you are when you got into it, the harder it is to adjust. She didn't feel the guilt anymore though; she had been here too long for that. However, having an outsider around seemed to stir up some of the emotions she thought she had buried. "It might help if you wrote it down."

"You mean, like, a diary?" he asked incredulously. _She can't be serious, _he thought.

"Not a 'diary'" she had almost forgotten that she was talking to a nine year old boy. "A journal. Somewhere for you to sort out your thoughts," he still didn't look convinced, "Sometimes it helps if you can get them out of your head." She stood up, "It helped me when I first got here…Just try it." She told him and walked down the hallway shaking her head.

Harry waited until he heard her bedroom door close before going back to his room and sitting down on his bed with a small notepad. _What_ _could it hurt?_ He thought as he started writing. It was hard to get the words to come out at first, but eventually his thoughts began to flow out onto the paper. Sometimes they didn't make sense or have any recognizable pattern but once he was done, he lay back in bed and actually managed to fall asleep.

It was nearly three o'clock when Harry was shaken awake from the first real sleep he'd had in weeks. He looked up groggily to see Con standing by the side of his bed with his arms crossed over his chest. Harry sat up, rubbing his eyes. For a moment Harry wondered why it felt so odd to have Con standing in his room, and then it struck him that after living together for nearly a month and a half Con had never set foot in his room before. He usually sent one of the others if he wanted to see Harry.

"Were you planning to sleep _all_ day?" Harry couldn't help feeling uncomfortable as Con's critical gaze traveled around the room before slowly returning to him. "Be downstairs in twenty minutes."

As the door closed Harry got out of bed, ran a hand through his unruly hair, and made a mental note to clean his room as soon as possible. He felt the silver watch in his pocket and put it under his mattress. He knew it wasn't the safest place for it, but it was the best he could do. He took a quick shower and got dressed, before heading downstairs, and finding the others all sitting around the couches in the living room.

"Good morning, sleeping beauty." Link said as he came down the stairs "How nice of you to finally join us." Harry sat down at the end of the couch and avoided looking at Leaf. He didn't want to admit that he had taken her advice last night. He wasn't even sure if it had really helped, or if he had just passed out from exhaustion.

"We would have let you sleep, but we thought you might want to be with us when we go see The Rogue." Harry felt the muscles in his stomach form a knot when Con reminded him that he would be meeting The Rogue today. He had completely forgotten about it after he found the silver watch.

"We're going now?" Harry asked nervously as the others stood up

"No time like the present." Con said, as he grabbed the canister with the painting in it and led them down to the tunnels.

After nearly two hours of walking, they finally reached their destination halfway across town. Harry was so tired by then it took him a moment to realize that the building they were walking towards was a pub.

He hesitated as the others crossed the street. _This_ _is where we're meeting The Rogue?_ He wondered.

"Come on lightning." Link called when he noticed Harry was no longer behind him. Harry ran to catch up, feeling the knot of anxiety that had been building in his stomach tighten. He had had never been in a pub before. "This should be interesting," Harry said quietly to himself as he reached the others and Con pulled the door open.

The first thing that Harry noticed was the noise. The moment Con opened the door it felt like he was hit by a wall of sounds. There were dozens of people there drinking, eating, talking, shooting darts, gambling and just trying to blow off steam. Harry stood by the door waiting for someone to say something, ask him what he was doing there. A few people looked up when the door opened but when they saw whom he was with, they went back to what they were doing. No one seemed to mind that a group of minors had just walked in. Although they were definitely the youngest ones there, they weren't the only underage people. Harry heard many of the bars patrons call out greetings to Con, Max, Dozer, Leaf and Link. It only took a few minutes for them to drift apart once they spotted people they knew. Before he knew it, Harry was standing alone near the door. He cautious walked into the pub, trying to look as inconspicuous as possible, and failing miserably at it. He was only a few steps away from the door when he bumped into a waitress carrying a tray full of drinks.

"You lost honey?" she asked kindly once she steadied the tray. He shook his head and looked around as the waitress moved on. He walked around a bit more, feeling completely out of place as people kept tripping over him and asking if he was lost or looking for someone. It didn't take him long to decide that he was better off with one of the others, and started looking for Link

Harry quickly spotted him sitting at one of the more crowded tables near the corner of the bar. There was a small crowd around the table, and as Harry got closer, he realized that the five men seated at the table were playing a card game. Link was by far the youngest player in the game, but judging by the small pile of money that he had already built up, his age wasn't a disadvantage. Harry reached the table just as the players were showing their cards.

"Full house." A man in dark blue said as he laid his cards down on the table. Two of the players cursed as they threw down their cards, unable to beat a 'full house'.

Now it was just Link, the man in green and a man who looked like he would fit in well with a biker gang. His arms were completely covered with tattoos and when he smiled, Harry saw that his mouth was full of crooked yellow teeth. He laid down his cards and said "Four of a kind," causing the crowd around the table let out a few cheers and more than a few groans. Apparently, the man with tattoos wasn't very popular. Harry saw that the tattoos also covered his hands as reached out to grab the money from the middle of the table.

"Wait." Link called out over the crowd. The man with tattoos stopped with his hands inches away from the money, and the crowd went quite again. Enjoying the suspense and looks of surprise on everyone's faces, Link slowly revealed his hand "Straight flush." He said with a cocky grin, and the crowd let out a loud cheer.

The man across the table looked didn't look happy as Link stood up and grabbed the money from the center of the table. Harry counted more than nine hundred dollars before Link slipped the money into his pocket along with the rest of his winnings. "I think that'll be it for me tonight gentlemen." He pushed back his chair and stood. The Man with tattoos jumped to his feet with his hands balled into fists, looking like he was ready for a fight. Before anything could happen, one of the other men that had been sitting at the table stood up and put a hand on his shoulder.

"Come on kid." He looked over at Link with a slight edge in his voice "You gotta let me try to win my money back!" there was a friendly smile on his face, and he was obviously trying to stop this situation from getting out of hand.

Link considered for a moment and then sat back down, "Fine, but I'm tired of this game." He spotted Harry in the crowd and then looked back at the men around the table. "How about a game of Black Jack." He said congenially as he started shuffling the cards.

Harry didn't stick around to see what would happen next. He had spotted Max and Leaf on the other side of the pub, sitting in a large group of people that looked around their age. Max had her back turned towards him, while Leaf was turned to the side talking to some guy. He looked to be about 18 or 19, with slicked back brown hair. Even from across the room Harry could tell that Leaf was way less interested in the conversation than he was. Looking around he still didn't see Con or Dozer, so he went over to sit with them.

When Harry was a few tables away, the guy Leaf was talking to saw him walking towards them and gave a slight nod to a group of guys that were sitting a few tables away. Two of them stood up and started walking towards Harry. One of them was tall, with spike hair and piercings all over his face, while the other looked like he was on his way to becoming a pro wrestler. They were definitely the type of guys you would cross the street to avoid if you saw them walk towards you. Unfortunately, that wasn't an option for Harry as the one with spike hair intercepted him a few feet away from the table where he and his friends were drinking, affectively blocking Harry's path, while the other one walked out of Harry's line of sight.

Spike hair looked him up and down, with a grin that looked so much like the ones that Dudley used to give him that Harry had to fight the impulse to run away. He glanced over at the table where Max and Leaf were sitting, but Max still had her back turned to him and the guy Leaf was talking to was keeping her distracted. Harry knew it would be pointless to try to call to them over all the noise.

"Where do you think you're goin?" spike asked, breathe reeking of alcohol. Some of his friends at the table had turned around to see what would happen and started laughing as they watched him take a step forward and Harry take a step back. It wasn't until then that Harry felt someone standing right behind him. He looked over his shoulder, already knowing what he would see. While spike had intercepted him, his buddy had slipped behind Harry, cutting off his escape route. He turned back to Spike knowing that it didn't matter what he said.

"Where's your mommy kid?" Spike asked in a mocking baby voice, but Harry just stared at him stoically, preparing himself for the fight that was undoubtedly coming. "You're not gonna answer me?" spike was starting to get annoyed by Harry's lack of response, causing all of his friends to laugh even harder. He was about to take another step forward when he was suddenly shoved from behind, and lost his balance. Standing behind him was Leaf, looking angrier than Harry had ever seen her. Harry felt the guy behind him take a step back as Leaf walked over to them.

Spike stood up cursing, and swearing that someone was going to pay for that, until he realized whom it was that pushed him. His mouth snapped shut.

Leaf looked up at spike, "He's with us," she said, looking just as ready to fight as spike had been a few seconds ago.

Spike opened and closed his mouth twice, looking shocked that a girl half his size was talking to him like this. He looked over at the guy that Leaf had been talking to, but he didn't offer any help. "Is there a problem?" the guy asked spike without getting up from his seat, looking mildly annoyed by this interruption. Everyone at the tables around them was watching.

"No. We were just havin' a laugh." Spike said grudgingly, with a smile that was anything but friendly. He went and sat back down with his friends, and grabbed a beer.

Leaf put her hand on Harry's shoulder and steered him towards the table where she and Max had been sitting, as the people around them went back to what they were doing. She pulled up a chair next to hers for Harry to sit in. Looking around the table and then pointedly looked at the guy beside her, "This is Lightning, the newest member of the group." A few people nodded to him politely or introduced themselves. Harry learned that the guy sitting next to Leaf was Logan, and that he clearly wanted to stay on Leaf's good side. He apologized for his friends, saying that he didn't know what had come over them, and that they had just had too much to drink.

From the moment Harry sat down the conversation began to revolve around him, with people asking how he had gotten involved with Con and the gang and girls commenting on how adorable he was. At first Harry wasn't sure what to say, but Max and Leaf took care of that for him. They both took turns answering questions while he just sat there awkwardly. He hated it when people focused their attention on him, and the only person who seemed to hate it more, was Logan. He kept shooting Harry angry looks, and trying to steer the conversation back to him. Not only was Leaf no longer paying attention to him, all the other girls at the table were talking about Harry too.

Harry quickly discovered that there were only three things that Logan was interested: Logan, money and Leaf. Even though there were half a dozen other girls at the table that seemed to be hanging on his every word, he focused most of his attention on Leaf. He took every chance he got trying to impress her with story after story about all the jobs he and his 'team' had pulled. They usually consisted of him having to save the day with a cop right on his heels, or a gun to his head, or one hand tied behind his back. No matter how ridiculous the stories got, they all ended with him getting away with the money, and Harry wondering how one person could possibly be so self absorbed.

During one of Logan's stories Harry noticed Max leave the table, and wondered if anyone would notice if he got up as well. Logan seemed to have everyone's undivided attention as he reached the cliMax of his latest tale, and Harry knew that this would be the best time to slip away unnoticed. As soon as he began to rise from his seat Leaf's hand shot out and forced him back down. "Logan," she interrupted him mid sentence "Why don't you tell Lightning about the time you had to fight off three security guards, with a twenty pound bag of money on your back. In the middle of the night. In the rain." Leaf said dryly, giving Harry a look that told him he was going to be stuck here as long as she was.

A look of confusion crossed Logan's face while Leaf was looking over at Harry, but as soon as she turned around it turned into a confident smile. "You liked that one?" he asked, trying to buy some time. Leaf simply smiled and waited for him to tell the story.

"Liked what one?" A voice behind them asked. They all turned around to see Con standing there, looking just as confident as Logan was pretending to be.

"Connor." Logan said shortly, not even pretending to be happy to see him. Con completely ignored him, looking down at the tables other occupants instead. A few of the girls at the table waved and smiled at him, but Con was looking at Harry and Leaf.

"Logan was about to tell us one of his stories." Leaf said with a smirk, and shared a look with Con.

"The one where he had to out run a pack of wild dogs, with the cops on his trail in the middle of the night?" Con asked seriously, with only the slightest bit of sarcasm.

"No, the one where-"

"Actually," Logan loudly interrupted, "As much as I would love to stay and chat, I've got to get going. I've got an early morning tomorrow," he smiled at all the girls at the table, and then let his gaze linger on Leaf. "I'll tell you about it later." He said with a wink, before taking Leaf's hand and bringing it to his lips, "Wish me luck." He said kissing it lightly. Harry glanced over at Con to see what his reaction to this would be. His face remained indifferent but Harry saw a flash of anger in his eyes, which might have actually been jealousy. Harry filed that away for later.

"It was nice to meet you Lightning." he said shaking Harry's hand a little too roughly. "Conner." He said without looking at Con as he walked past him. Logan stopped briefly to talk to the guy with spiked hair before walking out. Con took Logan's abandoned seat on the other side of Leaf.

"Thank you." She said to Con under her breath

"You don't think he left because of me do you?" Con asked sardonically, getting a few laughs from some of the guys at the table. No one seemed to mind Con taking Logan's place. The conversation built up around them again and Harry noticed Con and Leaf talking quietly together

He leaned over so no one else would hear him, and quietly asked the question that had been bothering him since they first arrived. "When are we going to see The Rogue?" They had been there for over an hour now, and so far the only thing they had been doing was hanging out with their friends.

Con and Leaf glanced at each other. Harry was starting to hate it when they did that, it always meant that they knew something that he didn't.

"You'll meet him later," Con said vaguely, leaving Harry to wonder what they weren't saying.

"Don't worry about it." Leaf added, sensing his apprehension.

"Right. I'm gonna go get something to drink." Harry said, abruptly pushing his chair back. "Do they serve anything without alcohol here?" Con nodded and he started to walk away. He managed to squeeze through the crowds without knocking into anyone, and found a stool at the bar without too much trouble. Harry looked up at the list of food and drinks behind the bar and decided to get a soda. He looked around, but both of the bartenders were dealing with other customers. He began ripping up a napkin nervously as he waited. When the bartender finally came over to him, he looked Harry up and down. "Wow, they just keep making 'em younger and younger." He said with a rough voice.

"Um, yeah…" Harry wasn't in the mood to hear someone else talk about how young he was. "Can I have an orange soda please." He asked hurriedly, staring down at the scarps he was making.

"Do you have any money?" the bartender asked skeptically. Harry stopped ripping up the paper and realized that he had completely forgotten to bring cash with him.

"Put it on my tab." A man behind him said to the bartender as he walked up and sat on the stool beside Harry. The bartender looked over at him with a slightly startled expression, "And I'll have the usual." The man said, without noticing the bartenders look. The bartender quickly left to go and get their orders, leaving Harry alone with this stranger who was apparently a regular here.

As he looked the man over, Harry could immediately tell that this guy had been in his fare share of fights, and had probably had his nose broken more than once. It didn't detract from his good looks though; it only seemed to add a rugged quality to his already handsome features. He was average in size, but Harry felt a strange sense of danger from this man, as though he could probably take on anyone in this bar if he wanted to. Harry made a mental note not to underestimate him. He looked to be in his mid thirties, with short cut brown hair and intense dark blue eyes, which were currently focused on Harry. This man was thoroughly scrutinizing him, from his clothes to his face to his unruly hair, and Harry got the feeling that his sharp eyes didn't miss anything.

"Thanks…" Harry said carefully. He wasn't sure if he should accept this stranger's generosity.

"No problem." The man answered, breaking into a friendly smile that took Harry off guard. "Aren't you a bit young to be coming to bars?" He asked lightly.

Harry looked down, embarrassed. "Usually I don't. I didn't expect to come here." Harry didn't know why he suddenly felt the need to explain himself. "My friends brought me here." It was the first time he had ever said those words. _Friends… is that what they are?_ He chose not to pursue that line of thought. He could analyze his relationship with the gang later.

"Where did you expect to go?" the man asked curiously.

"I don't know." Harry said slowly. That was a lie. When they had left home, he didn't know where they were going, but he had expected The Rogue to live in a '_lair_' or something. Not a cheerful little pub, where anyone could just walk in off the streets. He had expected it to be dark and scary, and full of criminals. Although, looking around, Harry saw that most the people in the pub looked like they had some type of criminal past.

"Of course you do." The man said with an all-knowing smile, as if he could read Harry's mind. He studied Harry a bit more. He still had the same friendly smile on his face, but his eyes were piercing. "You don't belong here." There was no doubt in his voice.

Harry wasn't sure how to respond to that. He finally settled on saying, "Probably not." There was no point in denying it. It was obvious.

"So why are you here?" the man sounded truly interested.

"I heard they have great service here." Harry answered sarcastically as the bartender returned with their drinks. He didn't like all these questions. _What does it matter to him anyway?_ Harry thought.

The man actually laughed at that. "Thanks Mike."

"No problem, sir." The bartender said, before going to take care of some of the other customers. Harry took a sip of his drink and glanced around the bar to see where the others were. It was then that he noticed people all over the room kept looking over at him, or more accurately, looking at the man sitting next to him. Whenever they saw him glance their way they would look away, or turn back to what they were doing, but Harry knew something was going on. He looked back over at the man sitting next to him, to find him staring right back.

"You work for The Rogue don't you?" Harry asked, figuring that must be it. "You're one of his generals."

The man didn't look surprised by the assumption; in fact, he looked rather pleased that Harry had figured it out. "Something like that." He answered with another smile. The way he said it led Harry to believe he was missing something. "Come on." He said draining his drink and standing up. Harry looked up at him uncertainly, but didn't move from his seat.

"Where?" he asked, glancing over at the table where Con and Leaf were sitting, for some type of sign of what he should do. He saw that Max had rejoined them, and that they were all looking at him with blank looks that gave nothing away. He looked back up at the man, but it didn't seem like he was going to tell Harry anything else. _Am I just supposed to trust this stranger?_

He looked back over at Con, Leaf and Max, and thought he saw Con give the smallest of nods, but it could've just been his imagination. He figured that one of them would warn him if he were making some sort of mistake. Maybe this was the way he was going to meet The Rogue. Maybe he had sent one of his generals to come get Harry.

Finally making his decision, Harry stood up and nodded. People seemed to clear a path as they walked across the room. Even the man with tattoos that Link had been playing cards with jumped out of the way when he saw them coming, and Harry realized how dangerous the general must be. The general brought him over to a flight of stairs that Harry hadn't seen before. The noises from downstairs began to fade as they walked up the stairs. When they reached the second floor Harry saw two men standing guard in front of an office door, which in his mind confirmed the idea that they were going to go see The Rogue.

The guards didn't give them a second look as the general walked through the office door without knocking. The Rogue must be expecting them. The moment Harry stepped through the door he noticed a change in atmosphere. After being surrounded by all the noise and people downstairs, the office he was in now seemed quite and cold, despite the crackling fire in the fireplace.

Looking around, he couldn't help but to feel impressed - and more than a little intimidated. The room itself was about half the size of the pub, but it held a distinct air of importance. Harry got the feeling that that was exactly what it was designed to do. The first thing he saw when he walked in was the mahogany desk that sat directly facing the door, and the long sword that hung on the wall behind it. On the left and right of the desk stood three large bookshelves that reached high above Harry's head and held more books than he had ever seen outside of a library. Harry briefly wondered what a man like The Rogue would read. That's when it occurred to him. "Where is The Rogue?" he turned around to look at the man he had walked in with.

The general was leaning against the door, with that same all knowing grin on his face. Harry realized the truth a second before he said it. "I am the rogue." He said simply.

They stood in silence for a moment, staring at each other. After a few seconds the Rogue walked around to his desk, and sat down in the black leather chair. He looked like he belonged there. Harry slowly walked towards the desk.

"Please, Sit." The Rogue said indicating the vacant chair in front of his desk. Harry did as he was told without taking his eyes off the man in front of him.

"It's good to finally meet you, Lightning." He sounded genuinely pleased. Harry just stared at him, still trying to process this turn of events. "I heard that you were nervous about meeting me," He said as if he could read Harry's mind. "I thought that if we got to talk before you knew who I was it might help a bit." Harry still didn't say anything. "Apparently not." The Rogue said in an almost apologetic tone

"There's really no reason to be nervous. I've heard so much about you." He said kindly

"You have?" Harry asked with his voice going slightly higher than normal.

"Yes, I have." He said with a slight laugh, "From what I understand, I should be thanking _you _for this." He pulled the canister that they had stolen out from under his desk and placed it on the desk between them.

Harry shook his head, "I didn't do anything. Con and the others got the painting. I was just the look out." He didn't want to take credit for anyone else's work.

"According to the others, you saved the mission." He pointed out, watching Harry closely as he said it. Shock was clearly written on his face. The rogue continued, "I talked to them all separately, and each one of them told me that without _you_ they never would've made it out of there."

_Why would they do that?_ Harry wondered. His instinct told him to brush it aside, but he honestly didn't know what to say. He considered saying that they would have done the same for him, but he and The Rogue both knew that was a lie. It occurred to him how odd it was to be in a group where loyalty was considered such a rare quality. "Well, I couldn't just leave them there." Harry explained. As far as he was concerned, it was completely logical for him to go back for the others.

"Why?"

"What?"

"Why couldn't you just leave them?" The Rogue was still using the same kind tone as before, but Harry sensed a sharp edge beneath it. He got the feeling that The Rogue was trying to figure out what he was made of, and if The Rogue were anything like the others, he probably wouldn't appreciate Harry's reasons for going back. In this world, doing something because you think it's the right thing to do didn't seem to be a good enough reason.

Harry quickly thought about what the others would say and managed to come up with a pretty good answer. "They still have a lot to teach me. If they were to get caught, it would be bad for everybody." He said it while looking straight into The Rogue's eyes, and knew that it was the right answer to give. It wasn't a lie. He had just put a more 'realistic' spin on the truth.

"Don't underestimate yourself Lightning," The Rogue said as he stood and walked around his desk. "You must have more skill than anyone would have thought if you can keep up with Con and his team. From what I've heard, you're a natural." The Rogue said encouragingly, but the intended complement left Harry feeling sick. _Is this really something I want to be good at?_ He wondered.

"It's good to hear that you're learning though." He sits in the chair next to Harry. "To be honest, I wasn't sure how well you would fit in with the others." Although it was a pretty clear-cut statement it left Harry feeling as though he was once again missing something.

"What do you mean?" Harry asked slowly.

"Con hates being told what to do when it comes to his team. He wasn't very pleased when I told him to invite you to join them." The Rogue said shaking his head. Harry tried to hide his surprise, but the Rogue's eyes seem to catch everything. "Something wrong?" he asked.

Harry opened his mouth and then shut it again. He couldn't help feeling like this was something he should have guessed already, and knew that it shouldn't come as such a surprise to him, but it did. "_You_ told Con to invite me to join the group?" He asked, thinking back to that night he remembered asking Con why he would offer to help him. Con had said it was because he had helped his sister, because he owed him.

"Yes." The Rogue said slowly, as if it were an odd question.

Harry leaned forward in his seat, "So, when I first met Max and she was running from the police…you set that up." He felt a fist in his stomach tighten as he said it.

"No." The Rogue answered quickly, hearing the mistrust in Harry's voice. "I didn't know you existed until you met Max." he explained, "The reason she was running from the cops that night was because she had just pulled a job for me. Afterwards she told me how you helped her, and explained your situation. I checked you out, and then told Con to invite you to join the group."

The rogue was silent as Harry gathered his thoughts. He was relieved that his first meeting with Max hadn't been another set up, but his head was still spinning with questions. "What do you mean you checked me out?" he asked the question that kept popping into his head.

"Come on. Do you really think I would tell one of my Lieutenants to invite some kid off the streets to join his crew without doing a background check first?" He asked dubiously. Harry just stared at him, wondering how much The Rogue really knew about him, but he was already moving on.

"Lightning," he said, drawing Harry from his thoughts, "The main reason I called you up here was to congratulate you on a job well done. That's the second time you've saved one of my missions." He smiled down at Harry, and reached out a hand to shake. Looking up at him at that moment, He was struck by how normal The Rogue looked. Harry knew that under any other circumstances he could've easily mistaken this man for one of the people his uncle worked with. _When something seems too good to be true, it probably is, _the words from so long ago echoed back to him, and Harry's hand hesitated a few inches away from The Rogue's, before he pushed the memory back. _This is my life now, _he thought as he forced his hand met The Rogue's, but despite all the smiles and kindness, Harry couldn't help feeling like he was shaking hands with the devil.

There was a knock on the door behind them and The Rogue looked over at the clock on his desk. Harry used the sudden distraction to quickly slip his hand out of The Rogue's and look away. "Lightning, I'm afraid we're going to have to cut this meeting short." He said looking back to Harry and getting up from his seat. Harry quickly followed him over to the door. "It was good meeting you." He said as he opened the door.

"You too," Harry said, giving him a rather forced smile before walking out of his office and past the man that was waiting by the door. There was silence behind him for a long moment, but he didn't dare turn around. He could feel The Rogue's eyes on him as he walked down the hallway, but by the time he reached the end and worked up the courage to glance back the door to his office was already closed, and only the guards stood in the hallway behind him.

As soon as Harry stepped back into the bar he felt people's eyes on him. None of them came over and spoke to him, but Harry knew that they were all very curious about him. He was glad when Link quickly approached him a few seconds later.

"Come on Lightning." He said, and Harry was relieved to see that Link was leading him towards the exit. They hadn't been there for more than an hour or two but Harry had already had enough of this place.

He paused for a second before they reached the door, "Wait. Where are the others?"

Link gently pushed Harry forward as he answered, "They're already outside. They just sent me back in to get you." They finally reached the door and walked outside, to find the others waiting for them. The sun had already set and the flickering streetlights were on overhead. Harry took in a deep breath of air; he hadn't realized how just how loud and smoky it had been in there until now. They all stood together for a moment and Harry couldn't stop thinking about where he might be if The Rogue hadn't stepped in.

"Let's go." Con said, and started walking away from the pub.

When they were a few blocks away Link asked, "So Lightning, what did you think of The Rogue?"

Harry thought about the man he had just met. He had been kind and charming, and seemed honestly interested in what Harry had to say, which very few adults had ever been. Although most of the answers had left his thoughts spinning, The Rogue had answered all of Harry's questions. He had even congratulated him on a job well done, and told him that he was a natural. Harry remembered his own hesitation before they shook hands and the feeling that came with it, but he pushed that from his mind. After all, he probably wouldn't even be here if it weren't for The Rogue. "He was nice." He said with a nod.

"I'm sure." Con said from in front of them. Harry could practically hear the skeptically smirk in his voice.

"He really has taken a liking to you hasn't he." Leaf said quietly, almost to herself. He was pretty sure that The Rogue liked him, but the way Leaf said it made it sound like a bad thing. Harry decided not to let it bother him. Even if he did ask questions, he probably wouldn't get any real answers. He'd made his choice, and he was going to stick to it, for better or worse. There was still part of him, the part that he had pushed back earlier, that wondered if leaving was still an option.


	8. Betrayals part 1

**A/N: Sorry this took so long, but I have been rather overwhelmed with school work, and ACT's/SAT's, finding scholarships and applying for colleges. My senior year is not nearly as fun as I thought it would be. Anyway, thank you all for the reviews, they are a big part of the reason I keep writing. This chapter and the next chapter were originally supposed to be one long chapter, but it felt like I was throwing to much information into one chapter, and then still had to leave somethings out. once again this story really hasn't been beta read, but I hope you enjoy this and tell me what you think.**

**Betrayals ****(part 1)**

_**Twenty six years earlier**_

"There is no other way." The boy heard his father say in a harsh whisper to his mother. They had been arguing for weeks now, but this was the first time they had done it so openly. The boy saw his mother glance back at him from the front seat and then continued the argument in a more hushed tone. He knew that they were arguing about him, but there was nothing he could do about it. He knew that his family had given up hoping that his letter would come, and with the start of the new school year only a few days away now, he realized that it was time to accept his fate. He wasn't going to Hogwarts.

He looked over at his older brother, who looked so much like their father, and remembered all the 'accidental' magic he had done even before he got his letter. There had never been any doubt that he was going to Hogwarts. The boy remembered walking through the invisible barrier at Kings Cross and seeing the Hogwarts express for the first time. He wanted to go with his brother so badly, but his mother had said that he would have his turn in a few years, and he could hardly bear the wait. Now he may never have the chance.

He tore his gaze away from his big brother and looked out the window at all the muggle houses they were driving past, and wondered what was going to happen to him now. No one had ever told him what happened to wizards that didn't get accepted at Hogwarts, and he couldn't understand why his parents had insisted that he wear muggle clothes or why they had used muggle transportation. What business could his parents possibly have with _muggles_? The boy knew that the only people who associated themselves with muggles were mudbloods and blood traitors, and his family was neither.

It took another fifteen minutes before they pulled up in front of a large stone building, that looked unwelcoming at best. As the car pulled to a stop the boy sensed that something important was going to happen here. His mother's protest had grown more urgent, as if she suddenly didn't care that her children could hear her. "He's our son!" his mother said in a voice that frightened him. He had never heard her sound so...desperate.

"This is the only way-"

"It can't be!" his mother cried. For a moment she was almost begging. That scared the boy more than anything else so far. "There has to be another way!" she said angrily.

"He isn't one of us!" his father snapped back, just as irritated. "This is the best thing we can possibly do for him." For a moment his father almost sounded sad, but that idea was completely erased from the boys mind as he looked up into his fathers gray eyes and saw a look of cold detachment that was usually reserved for house elves and muggles. The boy couldn't hold his fathers gaze for long, and quickly turned his attention towards his mother. He saw tears in her eyes that looked like they might start falling any second, and had to look away. _I'm not one of them? Because I can't go to Hogwarts? _he wondered sadly, but he wasn't willing to voice the question.

"Come, Sebastian," his father said as he got out of the car and started to walk towards the building.

Sebastian briefly glanced over at his big brother, who wore a look of a teenage forced to go on a family trip, before following his father. It wasn't until they reached the front door that he realized that his mother and brother had followed them from the car. His father looked like he was about to say something to argue, but one look at his wife's face made him change his mind.

A quick knock on the front door and it was being wrenched open from the inside, as if the old man who opened it had been standing there waiting for them. When the old man saw who it was, a smile broke out across his wrinkled face, revealing a large gap between yellow teeth. He steeped back to allow them to enter and his father walked past the old man without a second glance. _Definitely not a wizard, _Sebastian thought with disgust as he walked past the old muggle himself. _Why are we here?_ He wondered again, as he looked around the deserted hallway. There was a flight of stairs over to his right, but the old man led the boy and his family to the left instead, and into a room that was obviously being used as an office.

As his family walked into the room the boy say the old man give him an appraising look. Sebastian stared back until the old man looked away. _How dare he stare at me like that_, Sebastian thought angrily as he watched the old man retreat behind his desk. The old man was completely unfazed by the boy, and began to address his father. "So, this is the boy Mr. -" that was as far as he got before the stunning spell hit him. The man fell into the rickety old chair that was behind his desk, and Sebastian finally let the questions that had been bothering him for the past few weeks come out.

"Father, what are we doing here? What was that muggle talking about? Where am I going to learn magic if I'm not going to Hogwarts? When am I going to get my wand, and everything else?" Sebastian had been trying to keep himself cool and collected, but the questions just came tumbling out, and he couldn't help feeling childish as his voice cracked on the last one.

His father slowly turned towards him, and Sebastian couldn't help taking a step back when he saw the look on his father's face and realized that he had no intention of lowering his wand. His mother stepped between them before either of them could move further.

"Abraxas please," she said imploringly "At least let me talk to him first."

She didn't wait for him to reply before pulling their youngest son to the side of the room, away from his father and whatever he was about to do. She sat down in a chair with her back to the rest of the room and held her son in front of her and studied his face as if she were trying to memorize every detail of it. Sebastian had obviously inherited his dark blue eyes and brown hair from her, just like her older son had inherited his fathers looks. She had always tried to treat both of her boys the same, but Abraxas had always favored their oldest son, almost like he knew that there was something wrong with Sebastian...and the boy had always seemed to need her just a little bit more than his brother did.

After nearly a minute of just staring at him, and trying to find the right words to explain this horrible situation she finally spoke. "Sebastian," she paused for a moment when she felt her voice about to break. She already regretted her outburst in the car. She needed to be strong right now, for her son's sake. There would be time to break down later. She started over again "Sebastian...this is going to be your new home from now on." She tried to make her voice sound cheery, like the idea of her son living here with these muggles didn't break her heart.

"With muggles?" he asked incredulously, still not understanding what was happening. "But, how will I learn magic from muggles?" The boy had to fight the instinct to look over at his father, as his mother clearly wasn't making any sense. _Have they all gone mad? _He wondered as his mother continued speaking, with a strained look on her face.

"Sweetheart...you aren't going to be learning magic." she saw a look of horror cross his face, but pressed on, "do you know what a squib is Sebastian?"

"I'm not squib!" he said in a disgusted tone. Forgetting about his determination to ignore his father the boy glanced over at him, and was met by the same hard look he had gotten earlier. In a final desperate attempt to keep his world from shattering apart, he looked over at his big brother and found him wearing the same bored expression he usually wore. The boy felt a small trace of hope that was quickly crushed when his brother caught his eye and gave him a slight smirk, mouthing the words 'I told you so', with a smug look on his face.

He couldn't breathe. It felt like someone had knocked all the air out of him. Sebastian was reminded of the stories his brother had told him about dementors, and wondered if any of them could possibly be around. He felt panic rising in his chest, and a sudden sense that the room was getting smaller, and much hotter than it should have been. He didn't notice his father walking towards him, but he was suddenly standing right beside his mother, who was steadily trying to calm him down.

"This isn't helping the boy!" his fathers sharp tone cut through his panic. "You should have just let me wipe his memory, and be done with it."

"Abraxas-"

"NO!" his father said harshly, "It's time," his father rounded on him with his wand raised. Sebastian felt his back hit the wall behind him, and looked around frantically for some way out of this, "Mom!" he cried out, knowing that there was nothing she could do to help him. In the instant before his father delivered the curse that would clean away his memory forever it felt as though time had slowed down. His eyes went from his father's icy features to the excitment on his brothers face, as if he were watching an interesting quidditch match instead of his little brothers last moments as part of the wizarding world. Finally his eyes settled on his mother's face, and the look of sheer horror mixed with something else. He saw her lips move, at the same time as his father's, but only years later would he realize that her spell must've hit him first.

* * *

_**10:00 pm, July 17, 1991 - Present day**_

Shards of memories from a past life long since lost now caused a very grown up Sebastian to turn restlessly in his sleep. Glimpsing snapshots of the few scenes he could recall from his childhood, memories that he had clung to for years, ever since his parents had left him at that orphanage with the old man.

It was the sharp cracking sound that caused The Rogue to jerk awake. He looked around the room for the source of whatever had woke him from his sleep, but the room was cast into shadow by the crackling fire that was his only source of light. He knew that there was no way anyone could've gotten through the bar _and_ past his guards without him knowing it, but something must've woken him up, and he got the odd sense that someone was watching him. He slowly stood up and walked around the couch he had fallen asleep on, over to the light switch near the door. He knew he was probably being paranoid , but his instinct had kept him alive this long, and there was no way he was going to disregard them now.

Sebastian flipped the light switch and felt his heart leap in his chest. There was a man sitting behind his desk. In the time it would've taken most men to blink The Rogue had already drawn his gun and aimed it at the man, knowing that anyone who had gotten into his office without him knowing it could only be there for one reason. Unfortunately the gun in his hand was rendered useless when his arms and legs suddenly snapped together, and his body went completely rigid.

He fell to the ground when he was no longer able to keep his balance, and wound up staring at the ceiling. He could feel his heart racing, and adrenalin pumping through his veins, but it was impossible for him to move. He heard the chair behind his desk squeak back, and could almost make out the soft footsteps across his carpeted floor growing closer, until they finally stopped beside his head and a face appeared within his line of sight. He felt his breath catch in his throat and knew that if he could make his mouth work he would've gasped.

"I hear you've been searching for me Sebastian." his brother said from up above him, with the same smirk that had been ingrained on Sebastian's memory so many years before. He could hardly believe what he was seeing. After so many years of searching, after nearly twenty six years of separation his brother was here, looking down at him with an annoyingly superior smirk. If Sebastian had been a little less excited to see him he might have noticed that his brother looked less than pleased to be here. As it was The Rogue simply lay frozen on the floor staring up at the man who now looked to be an almost exact copy of their father. It was another minute before the binding spell was lifted off him and his muscles relaxed. He said the first thing that came to mind, "I can't believe your really here."

"_Why_ am I here Sebastian?" His brother asked shortly, apparently unfazed by seeing his younger brother for the first time since he was fourteen years old. There was a reluctance in his eyes, as if his brothers answer really didn't hold any bearings over why he had come here, and yet he couldn't help asking. Sebastian didn't know what to say. He racked his brain for any words he might use to sum up what was going through his mind right now, but nothing he could think of seemed good enough. After trying to find his family for so long, now that his brother stood in front of him, he had no idea what to say to him. It would've almost been comical if this moment wasn't so crucial to his future. Finally he decided to skip the emotional parts and get back on more comfortable ground.

"I want to make a deal." he said bluntly, in a voice that sounded all too eager for his liking. Under any other circumstances he would've never put his cards on the table so quickly or gracelessly. If there was one thing he knew, it was how to insure that he got as much out of an arrangement as possible, and you didn't do that by showing all of your cards in the first five minutes of negotiations. But Sebastian was sure that they both knew who held all the cards in this game, and it certainly wasn't him.

As if to lamenate that point, his brother gave a soft chuckle of disbelief, "_You_ want to make a '_deal'_?" he sounded like he was talking to a child who was trying negotiate his bed time. "And what could you possibly have to offer me?" he walked back towards the desk with his smirk still in place.

The Rogue waited until his brother had settled himself back behind his desk before catching his eye and making sure he had his full attention before revealing the ace up his sleeve, "Harry Potter." the two simple words had his brother sitting up straight in the chair as if he had been electrocuted. Sebastian felt a strange sense of pleasure at seeing the smirk fall from his brothers face.

"What do _you_ know about Potter?" his brother asked in a voice that was deathly calm. Sebastian knew that this was the moment he had been waiting for. Everything that had happened to him since he was eleven years old had led up to this moment.

"Oh, I know everything about Potter..." The Rogue walked over to his desk and sat in the chair in front of it. He relished the feeling of once again having power in this conversation, and knowing something his brother didn't. It had taken him years to establish connections in the wizarding world. Even with his mother spell his memory had been mostly destroyed – not that he had known very much about the wizarding world in the first place. His first attempt to contact a wizard came when he was eighteen, and hadn't gone nearly as well as he had planned. He had been naive then, had assumed that if he could only find another wizard he would be welcomed back with open arms. He had been wrong of course. He'd picked the wrong wizard to approach, drunk, pureblood, the type of man his father would have been friends with. He had been lucky to walk away from that encounter with his life.

After that he was much more careful. He realized that there was too much about that world that he didn't know, so for a while he focused on building his status in the muggle underground, while keeping a watchful eye on the wizarding world. Picking old newspapers out of wizards trashcans, learning anything and everything he could from what he read and what he saw. As his knowledge of both worlds grew he realized that when the time came for him to try to approach another wizard he would need something to trade with – something a wizard would value. It was terrifying for him, stealing from such potentially powerful enemies but he knew it couldn't be helped.

It wasn't until two years later that he deemed himself prepared to try approaching one of them again. He was far more vigilant this time, knowing that the world he was so desperate to return to was more dangerous than ever for people like him. Voldemort and his self proclaimed Death Eaters were making headway with their pureblood supremacy movement. He knew that his family would be avid supporters of the cause, his brother had probably already joined the ranks of Death Eaters, but for now he needed to stay as far away from them as possible or he might not be as lucky as he had been on his first attempt.

It took him weeks to find a good candidate, someone low enough on the food chain to be willing to make deals with him and honor them, but still high enough to be able to offer valuable information. In the end he found it fitting that the man he chose turned out to be a thief. Luckily it seemed the language between thieves didn't change, no matter where you came from. One look at the merchandise he had stolen and a promise that there was more to come and they quickly came to an arrangement.

From then on out Sebastian had a steady flow of information coming out of the wizarding world, the type of stuff they didn't write about in the wizarding newspapers. As time passed it seemed to get more and more dangerous for someone of his current status to be anywhere near the wizarding world. Voldemort and his supporters were wagging a war, and he had no intention of getting caught up in it. He knew that he would have to wait it out until things let up a bit before he attempted to contact his family. For the longest time it seemed as though it would never end...until it almost did. The night Lord Voldemort was vanquished by the boy-who-lived. From what his sources told him there were plenty of conspiracy theories – the ministry had set up a secret sting operation, Voldemort had been captured, the boy was a reincarnation of Merlin himself – but nobody really knew what happened that night. All they had was the outcome; The Potter boy had lived and The Dark Lord had vanished.

For months afterward it seemed like the war was finally coming to an end as Voldemort's followers were rounded up and locked away, or killed. People began to believe that it was finally over. That was when the Death Eaters reunited and struck back at the enemies with a vengeance. No one could have foreseen it, and most people wouldn't have believed it possibly, but without Voldemort to lead them and keep them in cheek, it seemed the Death Eaters were even worse than before. As if they were trying to fill the void of evil left in Voldemort's wake.

When it became apparent that the current state of things wouldn't be letting up anytime soon Sebastian started to make subtle inquiries about his family. His source came back with information that confirmed his brothers status as a Death Eater in Sebastian mind. Apparently there were people that believed him to be one of Voldemort's closest supporters, but no one could prove it. As far as the public could see he was an upstanding citizen. As tempted as Sebastian was to approach his brother he knew that it wouldn't be a wise move at the moment. No, he would need something much more valuable than moving paintings and bewitched trinkets and talismans to get his brother to agree to his deal. Once he knew where his brother was and allowed himself to believe that the wizarding world wasn't once again going to be erased right before his eyes he didn't rush it. He knew that he would probably only get one chance to make his case and when he did it would need to be good, but there was a longing inside of him to return to where he belonged. It was almost physically painful, but he waited and time seemed to drag on as the years grew longer and longer. He grew more powerful in the muggle world, but that meant nothing to him. What he wanted remained just outside of his reach.

And then it happened. He didn't know if it was chance or fate that brought the boy to him and he really didn't care. The only thing that mattered was that he was there, and after so many years of waiting and looking in from the outside he finally had the one thing that would guaranty his acceptance back into the magical world. He had found the one person that everyone in the magical world was looking for. The boy who lived.

When Lightning first showed up in the park The Rouge had no idea who he was, but he had heard about the Death Eaters attempt on Harry Potters life, and the orphanage they had destroyed trying to kill him. He had only told Con to let the boy join his group on a whim. A gut instinct that the child was more than he appeared, and he had been right. It had taken him a month and a half to figure out the boys origins, and once he did he couldn't bring himself to believe it. So he tested the boy. Sent them to steal a painting from a wizards home. It wasn't until he heard the accounts from all the others in Con's team and met Potter for himself that he allowed himself to believe. Once he knew for sure what he had, he began the strenuous process of trying to contact his brother. He had to be subtle about it. If anyone else in the wizarding world found out that he had the boy his plan would be ruined. And his brother hadn't made it easy.

He told his sources to let it slip to his brother that he wanted to talk to him. He thought that as soon as word got out that he was back his brother would immediately come to see him, if only out of curiosity. His brother did the exact opposite. Shutting down any attempts Sebastian made to contact him, until The Rouge finally decided to force his hand. Knowing that the main requirement of Death Eaters was that they be pure blood The Rouge knew that rumors of a squib brother would be detrimental to any Death Eaters standings. He knew that was why his brother was here now. He needed to stop Sebastian from causing problems, and that is why Sebastian knew that his brother would be eager to agree to his deal.

He quickly explained the series of events that led the boy to him, omitting anything that might reveal more to his brother than he was ready to tell him. "If you're anything like I've heard – like our father was raising you to be – then my information about the boy must be invaluable to you." Sebastian could tell that his brother was doing swift calculations in head. He briefly wondered how often that look must cross his own face, and no wonder his men showed him such respect.

"And, what exactly do you want for this information?" His brother asked with a slight curiosity slipping into his tone.

Sebastian knew it was time to play his final card. "I want you to help me return to my rightful place in the wizarding world, and in our family." the words hung in the air between the two brothers, while the older of the two took them in. As far as The Rogue was concerned it was just as important that he be able to return to his family as to the wizarding world, if he had one without the other his mission wouldn't be complete. He saw a range of emotions fly across his brothers face, but was unable to discern what it all meant. After all his time and preparations for this moment, not once had it occurred to him what he might do if his brother actually heard him out, and still said no. The realization of that crushing possibility thrust itself upon him now, and he wondered what he would do if that happened. _It couldn't, _he told himself with a confidence that he didn't feel as he looked up at his older brothers expression.

After what had to be the longest two minutes of his life he saw his brother give a short nod, and then look back up at him with a familiar smirk in place. For one bizarre moment Sebastian was reminded of Con, but quickly shook that comparison from his mind. Finally he told his brother about the plan he had been forming in his mind ever since Lightning had joined Con's little gang. His brother nodded along as he listened, agreeing to everything Sebastian was saying.

"The one thing I wonder is how you've kept him under your control this whole time. The boy must be prone to accidental magic. I wonder how someone like yourself could control such a child." his brother said as if it were complement.

"There have been very few incidents of that." The Rouge picked up on the underlying insult but let it go. "if there is one thing I've made sure the boy learned it is self control."

"_you_ taught him self control?" his brother said it in a joking manner.

"No," The Rouge answered, wondering if his brother thought he hadn't mastered it himself. "I've made sure to keep my distance from the boy. Kept him with people closer to his age. It really is a shame that he has to die...I could see him having my job one day." he said the last part to himself, and his brother pretended that he hadn't heard.

"Speaking of which, where is the boy?" his brother asked casually. The Rouge almost answered, but quickly caught himself. "What, you don't trust me?" his brother asked when he saw Sebastian hesitate.

"You can't seriously expect me to hand over my only leverage." Sebastian said lightly with an incredulous frown. The slight smile on his brothers face seemed to harden then.

"Where have you been keeping him all this time?" his brother was staring him straight in the eye and Sebastian refused to look away and lose anymore ground in this power struggle. Once again he felt the pleasure of knowing that he had something his brother wanted. He had been painfully careful in keeping the boy hidden. That was part of the reason why he kept the boy with Cons group, where he was least likely to be noticed. The fact that everyone knew him by the nickname Link had given him didn't hurt either. For nearly a year now he'd had Cons group teaching him how to stay hidden and unnoticed in plain site. There was no way anyone would find the boy or the house without Sebastian's help.

A second after this thought crossed his mind his brother broke eye contact, looking all too satisfied with himself, and Sebastian had no idea why. He took in his brothers rejuvenated smirk with his own look of bewilderment, _is it possible...no...there's no way he could have read my thoughts..._but as soon as he thought it he knew it was true. In his own stubborn stupidity he had given his brother exactly what he wanted. He felt the blood drain from his face.

"You're much smarter than I thought you would be Sebastian." His brother laughed. "and yet still so stupid. So muggle." he stood up, and his brother quickly followed.

"But...you promised." Sebastian said in a strained voice, sounding so much like the naive eleven year old he once was. He knew that his brother no longer had any intention of keeping there deal, and he vaguely wondered if he ever had.

"And you believed me..." his brother said mockingly.

"You can't do this!" Sebastian argued, feeling the type of intense panic that he hadn't felt since the day he was left at the orphanage. It was like he was experiencing some sick sort of déjà vu.

"Yes. I can."

"I'll tell them!" Sebastian blurted out in a desperate panic. "I'll tell everyone about me! Think the Death Eaters will still accept you then?!" he let out a deranged laugh, no longer caring about what would happen next. His dream, the one thing that had kept him sane this whole time was gone. His hope was crushed. It didn't matter anymore. Nothing mattered anymore.

"Yes...I had thought of that." his brother said slowly as if they were still just having a casual conversation. He pulled out his wand once again, but Sebastian didn't seem to register it. "You know that I can't let that happen." his brother moved around the desk and Sebastian came out of stupor enough to get an idea of what his brother intended to do.

He took a step back as his brother advanced toward him, his movements echoing those of his father. "You would hurt your own brother?" he asked pleadingly. He had honestly never thought this could happen. he had always known that there was a possibility of losing his memory when he was face to face with wizards, but he kneww his brother wasb't just trying to take his memory. His brother didn't answer, but continued to move towards him, backing Sebastian into a corner. "What would our mother say?" he tried appealing to his brothers sense of family and morality. To his surprise his brother stopped.

"What would mother say?" he seemed to be seriously considering the question. "She'd say it was about time. You have no idea how much you hurt her, do you? How much of an embarrassment you are to her, and everyone else in this family. You were nothing more than a stain on our family tree. The mistake."

"Liar!" Sebastian yelled, and then quietly to himself, "lying." He could faintly hear his guards outside banging on the door, trying to break it down, but that didn't matter. The only thing that penetrated his thoughts was his brothers words. His lies. _She loved me! She protected me._ He kept repeating those words to himself to try to block his brother out, but it wasn't working. Each word hit him like a physical blow.

"She was glad that you were gone. We told everyone you were dead, and after a few weeks we stopped talking about you altogether. They wanted to focus on the son they still had." he leaned forward slightly as if he was about to tell his brother a secret. "I told you I was their favorite." he stage whispered. Sebastian lunged at him, with tears running down his face, determined to make him stop. To make him take it all back, and tell the truth. The curse hit him before he ever reached his brother, and he landed on the floor with lifeless eyes staring blankly across the room.

His brother looked down at him with a look of disgust. He had known from the moment he had decided to come here that it would end like this. Sebastian had been nothing more than a lose end that needed to be tied. He was extremely glad that he had heard him out though. He could hardly believe that the boy everyone had been searching for had somehow found his way to a Death Eaters exiled brother. He laughed at the irony of it, feeling happier than he had in over a year.

He gave one last look to his brother before lifting the spell of the office door and apparating back to headquarters. Now that knew where the boy was Lucius Malfoy was closer to taking his rightful place as the Dark Lord than ever before.

* * *

**A/N:** Just to clarify in case anyone didn't quite get it, yes a year has passed in between this chapter and the last one (I've known I was going to do this since I started writting the story). Lucius Malfoy is/was The Rouge's brother. Something I don't think I mentioned in the chapter (although it might come up) is that The Rouge's full name was Sebastian G.(as in Graham) Malfoy. Sebastian takes after his mother (brown hair, dark blue eyes) while Lucius takes after his father, Abraxes, (Blond hair, cold grey eyes). Another thing that you all keep mentioning is that in the french books Snape was called 'Rouge'. That is a complete coincedence. Something that I hinted at in the chapter is that the painting was magical. Part of Sebastian's deal to get information from his sources was that he had a steady flow of magical iteams to trade with. Once he became The Rouge he started passing those mission off to his underlings, but that's as much as I'll tell you about it for now. 

**Review reply:**

**Kinda e**vil: it wasn't a 'well duh' type of thing. It took me a long time to decide on making The Rouge a squib. as far as the watch and the radios not working, those things will be explained later in the story. I always hate it when I find mistakes after the chapter has already been posted, but I'm not very good a beta reading my own work, so it's bound to happen. as for the other story, I am kind of putting that on hold for now (senior year does not mix with multiple extra tasks). **fhippogriff:** it's good to be back. as you can see we are starting to re-enter the wizarding world so you'll be finding all that out soon. as for the Dursleys, their fate is kind of up in the air at the moment. we'll see what happens to them. **Kaiphoenix: **Harry does seem to be very good at that. considering his current lifestyle i'm guessing that his ability to think on his feet has probably increased, but I wonder if he still loves learning/reading, like he did in chapter one. **Barranca:** I like to think that the best bad guys are the ones you least suspect. People with real power don't go stomping around and screaming about it. The ones you should really worry about are the ones who walk lightly, because they're the ones you never see coming. Things keep getting worst for Harry. At first you think that his biggest problem is going to be The Rouge but now that The Rouge is gone Harry is probably much worst off than he was before. **Allen Pitt:** Speaking of Harry's eleventh birthday, he was a week or two away from his tenth b-day last chapter (although I doubt he remembered or celebrated) and exactly one year has passed since then. As I said up above, the dursleys fate is up in the air at the moment. considering what's going on in the wizarding world right now (you'll learn about that soon) putting Harry in slytherin would be very much like a death sentence. **Goldentree:** if it's a good thing or a bad thing really depends on how you look at it. The Rouge allowed Harry to join Con's group which got him off the street, but the only reason he did that was so he could set Harry up to be killed by Lucius. I can't decide if Sebastian deserved what he got or if he was just as much a victim as Harry. the name 'The Rouge' was just a coincedence. I had no idea that Snape was called that in the french books. **Potterwatch:** you always complement me on the things that I am most insecure about, and I have to say thank you! every OC I write about have been bouncing around in my head for the longest time. They are all very real to me. hopefully this cahpter answered some of your questions about the wizarding world, but you be seeing much more of it soon. **bookworm3213: **I can't wait to see what you think of Harry next chapter.** Tobang: **I can't say your wrong about the updates, but hopefully the quality is better than the quantity. As much as I love this story I have to prioritize, and school/scholarships/preparing for college has to come first. **Dragonist: **I actually did read the thief lord once, but besides the fact that they're both about young criminals, I really don't see the comparison. **hyperfuzzy: **hopefully these next few chapters will help you to decide. **Sanjla:** I'm offended that you are surprised by that. lol, we'll see if I still hang out with you when I sell my millions of books. **The French Dark Lord: **When I first started writing that chapter I actually drew a little diagram of the office so that I could keep everything clear in my mind. I considered making The Rouge's place something grand, like the way you describe it, but it just didn't seem very realistic for Sebastian to serious be in a place like that. As you can see we are definitly heading back into the wizarding world now, and I can't wait to see what you all think of Harry now that a whole year (and all it's contents) has gone missing. **Petites sorcieres, Tommy 14, heksie, Ranyl-sama, Aznprincessworrior, xspollyx, itmethatu: **thank you for the reviews.


	9. Betrayals part 2

**Disclaimer: this world belongs to JKR, I am just borrowing it.**

**A/N: I am glad that this chapter is finally out of my head. I hope you all had a happy new year! you've waited long enough for this, so I won't delay you any longer. Enjoy!**

**Betrayals (part 2)**

_**10:00 pm, July 17, 1991**_

Lightning glanced up at the tempestuous sky as soon as he stepped out of the tunnels. With angry clouds covering every inch of the sky it was hardly brighter in the alley than it had been down in the sewers. _That's just great, _he thought sarcastically, but he knew that the darkness would work to their advantage once they were inside the facility. He decided to leave the manhole they had just exited uncovered in case they needed to make a quick retreat. The few seconds it took to open it could mean the difference between success and failure.

He took a few quick steps to catch up to the others who were already moving towards the fence that surrounded the warehouses. It had become a tradition not to speak just before a mission started. By this stage everything that needed saying had already been said. This small window of time allowed them each to make their final mental preparations before things started moving so fast there wouldn't be time to think. Lightning had noticed that they each had their own way of handling stress before a mission. Link would play with his deck of cards, shuffling them back and forth between his hands; even now as they walked his hands were constantly twitching. Dozer had gone over every piece of equipment they were carrying with them on the mission, and was now flicking a dangerous looking knife open and closed. Lightning hoped that he wouldn't have to use it, but knew that he would if he had to. He glanced over at Max and saw her shoot Dozer an irritated look. She was always testy before missions, snapping at people over the smallest things. Leaf usually focused her nervous energy on the kitchen or the furniture. Lightning was no longer surprised when he walked downstairs on the morning of a mission to find that the living room or the kitchen had been completely rearranged. Needless to say Max and Leaf were hardly ever on good terms before a mission.

It had been harder to find Con's nervous tick, and for a long time Lightning thought Con was too calm and collected to have one, but after nearly a dozen missions he finally found it. As their leader Con had every aspect of the mission memorized, and while the others were busy getting on each other's nerves he would be going over everything again and again, and coming up with contingencies that they usually never had to use. Lightning didn't catch on to this compulsion until he noticed Con muttering parts of it under his breath. As far as Con was concerned everything had to work like clockwork but just in case it didn't he knew every room and possible escape route in the building.

It wasn't until Max snapped at him about it that Lightning realized he had developed his own idiosyncrasy. He was the guy who watched other people, which didn't seem too bad on the surface, but Lightning knew that it went deeper than that. He would turn his attention to the others to avoid analyzing his own emotions, which always seemed to be filled with doubts. Even now, as they reached the end of alley Lightning was focusing all of his attention outward in an attempt to subdue the fears that he felt rising up just below the surface. He was relieved when he saw the chain linked fence that surrounded the warehouses and felt a familiar rush heighten his senses.

The light on this side of the complex was little and far between, leaving enough shadows for them to move toward the fence without fear of being seen. Dozer took the lead with a pair of lock cutters and made short work of the padlock that was keeping the gate closed. Con had timed it perfectly so that they arrived just as the guard was patrolling the other side of the facility. Once inside they moved through the shadows like ghost, only visible when they got close to the lights that hung from the sides of the buildings. They weaved between warehouse after warehouse, until they finally reached the one they were looking for near the center of the facility. Dozer fell back from the front of the group and allowed Max to take the lead as they reached the door to the warehouse. It only took her a few seconds to get the code to the keypad next to the door and pick the lock, letting the door swing open and reveal the pitch darkness inside. So far they had all kept their flashlights off to avoid detection, but they each quickly pulled them out as they stepped inside, and let the door close behind them. The small beacons of light only lit up a portion of the warehouse but it was enough for them to realize what they were dealing with and why The Rouge had insisted that all of them participate in such a seemingly simple mission. There were towering shelves everywhere, piled high with boxes, and spanning across the entire warehouse. Lightning remembered The Rouge's smirk when he told them that they would understand when they got there.

Con had specified that the key to this mission would be finding what they were looking for once they got in, but a quick glance over at their leader told Lightning that he was just as surprised as everyone else. Looking around the warehouse again Lightning let out a short sigh, he didn't know why the Rouge wanted the box they had come here to get and he really didn't care. He just wanted to get this over with as quickly as possible. Con cleared his throat and when Lightning looked back at him he saw the older boy had regained his composure. He had to admire how easily Con could do that.

"We're going to have to split up. The box will be labeled 'G95'. Keep your radios on and contact me if you find anything." With that Con lifted his flashlight and walked away, down the nearest aisle to the right. Everyone else took his lead and splintered of into separate areas, searching. After nearly thirty minutes of walking around the warehouse Lightning had a nearly full bad of new toys and anything else he thought he might be able to sell, but absolutely no sign of the box they were looking for. He wondered if it was even in this warehouse. There seemed to be no logic to the way the boxes in here had been stored and he was already tired of looking. He would let one of the others find it, he decided, and started looking for a comfortable place to sit down. It was while he was stacking some of the boxes into the shape of a chair that he felt sensed somebody approaching from behind and quickly turned. He pointed his light down the aisle but there was no one there, just stack after stack of boxes, so he slowly turned back to his task. Soft footsteps behind him got closer, so quiet that Lightning was sure he wouldn't have heard them if he hadn't been straining to pickup any sound. This definitely wasn't his imagination but he didn't turn to look.

He waited until the person was right behind him before whipping around dropping the box he was holding and pointing his flashlight directly into the person's eyes. He balled his hand into a fist and punched his would be attacker in the arm.

"OW!" Link cried out, dropping his own flashlight onto the floor. Lightning simply smirked and went back to building his chair.

"What are you doing?" Link asked him, "Slacking off on the job?"

"I think I deserve a rest." Lightning answered unapologetically. He reached down to pick up the box he had dropped and add the final touch to his chair. It was as he was picking it up that he noticed number printed on the side and nearly dropped it again.

"What is it?" Link asked, noticing his strange reaction and coming to stand next to him.

"This is it." he laughed, catching Links eye before quickly ripping the box open and looking inside. After a moment of staring he reached in and pulled out its contents so Link could see too. It looked like a jewelry box, except for the strange engravings on the side. A bunch of symbols that didn't look like any language he had ever seen.

"What is it with The Rouge and weird stuff? And how come you're always the one to find it?" Link asked, but Lightning wasn't paying attention. He didn't take his eyes of the box as he took out his radio.

"Con, we've found it." he reported as he let his hands wander around the edge of the box, searching for the latch to open it. No matter which way he held it he couldn't find a lock or any indication that the box could be opened.

After a few seconds of static Con's voice came across, "Everyone meet back at the entrance." he said shortly. They didn't bother to disassemble the chair Lightning had made before going to find the others. They would be long gone before anyone discovered the evidence of their presence.

Leaf, Max, Con and Dozer were already standing by the door when Link and Lightning arrived. He handed the box off to Con and took stock of what they had accomplished tonight. Not only did they get what they came for but they each carried a bag full of merchandise that they could easily sell later on. They all knew better than to call it a success yet but Lightning couldn't help feeling pleased.

"One at a time," Con said to the others. They were more likely to be caught at this stage than any other and they couldn't risk all being caught together. "I'll go first and send a signal if it's all clear." It only took two minutes before Con's voice was coming back across the radio and they slowly began to trickle out of the warehouse. Link went next, followed by Max and then Leaf, until there was only Dozer and Lightning left.

When Leaf's signal arrived Lightning nodded at Dozer before stepping out into the unusually cool air. The thrill of the mission had returned to him, as he ran quickly and quietly away from the door. He saw a map of the complex in his mind as he turned the corner of the building he had just come out of. He needed to take a right at the end of this building, another left two buildings down, and then straight towards the fence. His mind was racing ahead of him which is probably why he didn't hear the guard walking around the edge of the building until he nearly ran into him.

For a moment they both stared at each other in shock. This was clearly the last thing the guard had been expecting. Not only were they being robbed, they were being robbed by a child. Before the guard could rap his mind around what he was seeing Lightning had come up with a plan. Without missing a beat the look on his face went from slight shock to complete horror and fear. The moment the guard took an uncertain step towards him he dropped the bag full of merchandise and put his hands in the air.

"Please don't shoot me!" He pleaded while making his voice go as high as possible. It didn't matter that the man didn't have any type of weapon in his hands.

The guards face went from a look of doubtful confusion to annoyance, "What are you doing here kid." he asked in a harsh voice. Lightning noticed him strain his back to make himself seem even more intimidating, but he didn't make any move to restrain Lightning or call for back up, figuring he could handle it himself. "Are you alone?" he asked looking around slightly as Lightning nodded his head vigorously. The guard looked down at him for a moment before asking, "Who put you up to this?"

"Adam and his friends," Lightning answered miserably, as he tried to make himself appear smaller, "They said that if I came in here and took some stuff they would let me hang out with them."

"'Adam' and his 'friends', eh? Well, do you know that Adam and his friends just had you commit a crime for them?" The guard raised his eyebrow, and Lightning wondered if he was trying to prove something with this tough guy act. He had to suppress the urge to roll his eyes before answering.

"Adam said it isn't illegal 'cause his dad owns the warehouse and I had his sons permission so that makes it OK, and they were just borrowing the stuff anyway and then he would give it all back to his dad, so it's OK. He even had the codes to get in and everything..." Lightning continued rambling until the guard cut him off, not noticing the person coming up behind him.

"No, kid, that doesn't make it OK." the guards annoyance was clearly growing, "what's your name?" he asked as he reached down towards his belt and unhooked his radio to call one of the other guards.

"Eric. Please don't call my parents!" he said quickly, trying to buy a few more seconds of time. "It was just a couple of toys! I'll go put them back. Promise you won't call them." he said taking a step towards the guard and grabbing onto the arm that held the radio.

"We'll see." the guard shook Lightning off and brought the radio back up to his mouth but he didn't get a word. Before he could say anything his eyes bugged out and he let out a gasp as he pitched forward and hit the ground with a hard thud. Dozer stood over him with a small smile on his face, glad that he had gotten to use his knife, even if it was the hilt instead of the blade.

"Time to go." Lightning grabbed his bag from the ground and took off after Dozer towards the fence. He couldn't believe that he had almost allowed himself to get caught. Adrenaline was once again coursing through his body. He felt like he could run all the way home. Only the sight of the others waiting just inside the mouth of the alley made him slow down. There were no questions asked until they were at least a few blocks away from the facility. He and Dozer explained what happened, Lightning telling them how the guard had come out of nowhere and he had played the 'dumb kid' while Dozer snuck up and took care of him.

"Did you kill him?" Lightning remembered a time when Con's casual manner of asking such a question would have disturbed him.

"No, he was still breathing." Dozer answered. He now understood that it was a necessary question to ask. The guard had seen his face and pretty soon he would be waking up to tell the police what had happened. If he remembered Lightning's face clearly enough it could cause trouble for all of them. Con simply nodded at the answer and continued walking in silence while the others talked quietly. Lightning tried not to worry about what might happen if the guard did remember what he looked like since there was nothing he could do about it. He listened to the others trying to one-up each other with the things they had stolen, but didn't join in. by the time they were half way home Leaf had been declared the winner and Link was quick to change the subject.

"Does anyone else think this thing is weird?" Link nodded towards the box. "What use is a box if there's no way to open it?"

Max shrugged, "It looks really old...probably valuable."

"Then why was it stuffed in a box in a warehouse?" Link asked refusing to be deterred. "If it were valuable then it would be in a safe."

"To throw people off? Who would look for it in there?" Leaf asked reasonably. It had become a kind of game for them, coming up with explanations for things whenever Link started talking about possible conspiracies going on. Even if they secretly agreed with him.

"So what's inside that's so important?" Link asked. Lightning had been asking himself all the same questions. What use was a box that couldn't be opened?

"That's for The Rouge to find out." Con finally decided to join the conversation. "We're going to bring it to him tomorrow." Lightning felt a ripple of excitement go through the group and the discussion quickly turned to the bar and what they all planned to do tomorrow. Lightning had a feeling that a change in topic was exactly what Con intended, but he didn't comment. Even he was looking forward to the trip, if only for the entertainment it usually provided. It was hard to be bored in a bar full of thieves and crooks. There was always something to do.

They were all happy when they finally reached the end of the tunnel that led up to the house. After nearly two hours of walking Lightning couldn't wait to go upstairs and take a shower or maybe he would go straight to bed. Both ideas seemed appealing and he was still debating with himself about it when they reached the living room. Lightning was the last one to enter the room, and stopped for a second to look around. There was nothing out of place as far as he could tell but something seemed off. He felt a chill as he stepped into the room that didn't have anything to do with the temperature.

"Wait." he called to the others who were already headed towards the stairs. They all turned to look at him and for a moment Lightning didn't know what to say. He walked to the middle of the room where all the others stood. "There's something wrong." he told them without knowing what had actually triggered his fear.

It was then that the walls suddenly began to ripple with movement and people began to appear around the room, shedding their camouflage like chameleons. Lightning felt his head spin as his mind tried to adjust to the sudden change, and while he closed his eyes for a moment he was able to hold on to the hope that he was simply hallucinating._ This can't really be happening_, he tried to convince himself but that hope was crushed the moment he opened his eyes. They were completely surrounded by the same people who had haunted Lightning's nightmares since the night they had burned down the orphanage. He heard Max gasp but he couldn't take his eyes off of the figures that surrounded them. _How did they find me?_ He wondered as everything stood perfectly still and the whole world seemed to be holding its breath and waiting to see what would happen next.

It was Dozer who made the first move, running at the closest masked figure at full speed. "No!" Lightning yelled in a voice that didn't sound anything like his own but by the time the word left his mouth it was already too late. One second Dozer was barreling towards the closest masked person and the next he was withering on the floor with his body bending itself in ways that a body should never be bent. Dozer let out the type of scream that Lightning didn't think he was capable of and out of the corner of his eye he saw Leaf holding Con back and was glad for it. There was nothing any of them could do to stop this.

"Silencio!" the word was yelled from the top of the stairs, and as Dozer was cut off mid-scream. An image of Mrs. Sanders screaming silently into the night raced across his mind as he tore his eyes away from Dozer's pained face and turned towards the man who had spoken. He stood at the top of the stairs with a wooden stick casually pointed down at Dozer, and Lightning knew that he was their leader.

The man took a step down the stairs and spoke softly to Dozer. "Are you going to behave like a good little muggle?" He asked in the same patronizing voice that Lightning remembered. After a few more seconds he nodded to one of the other masked people and Dozer collapsed on the floor with a gasp of pain. Lightning felt the man's eyes focused on him during this whole show and knew that it was meant for him. A taste of what was coming.

"You have no idea how long I've been waiting to meet you." The man said quietly, finally addressing Lightning directly.

He felt everyone's eyes turn towards him, and avoided looking into his friends eyes as realization dawned on them. He focused his attention on the man at the top of the stairs instead, and asked the question that had haunted him for over a year now. "Who are you?" His voice came out barely louder than a whisper.

The man let out a hollow laugh as he slowly walked down the stairs, clearly enjoying himself. "I am the man who is finally going to kill you." A few of his followers tried to join in the laughter, but it quickly died away.

"You're the one from the orphanage." He was sure that it was true, but for some reason he needed this man to admit to it. A picture of Stan flitted through his mind, but instead of the guilt that usually accompanied memories of his dead friend he felt anger in its place. _It is not my fault_, and for the first time he actually believed it. These were the people responsible for Stan's death.

"Yes...it seems your just as slipper as your parents." he reached the bottom of the stairs, and let out another chuckle when he saw the shock on Lightning's face. "We all know how that ended though."

Lightning felt like the air had been electrocuted. _My parents?_ _What do my parents have to do with this?_ _How does he know my parents?_ _What is this all about? _His mind was flooded with questions but he doubted that he would ever get the chance to ask them.

"I think it's about time you joined them." The man said and exited whispers broke out behind the masks that surrounded them. This was the main event, what they had all been waiting for. Lightning knew with a sick certainty that fate had finally caught up to him as the stick was leveled at his chest and a look of triumph entered the man's cold grey eyes.

It almost seemed fitting that the world should choose that exact moment to shatter around them.

Or at least that's what it sounded like to Lightning as the room was filled with cracks, screams and explosions. His would-be killer was blasted off his feet and Lightning was left staring at the spot where he had stood seconds before, trying to figure why he wasn't dead yet. He felt something heavy slam into him from behind, knocking him to the floor just as a jet of red light whizzed over his head. He looked around and was surprised to see that Leaf had pushed him to the ground. "Lightning, get moving!" She had to yell to be heard over all the noise and she was gone before he got the chance to reply, leaving him to scramble to his feet alone. His eyes swept the room collecting as much information as possible while his instincts kicked into gear. The first thing he noticed as he looked around was that there were at least twice as many people in the house as there were only seconds before and he couldn't figure it out. They wore masks to cover their faces and held the same dangerous sticks as the original masked figures, yet the two sides obviously weren't together. Full on battles had broken out between the two sides, and they were creating a light show that put every firecracker display Lightning had ever seen to shame. He didn't let himself get distracted by it, he knew that his first objective had to be getting out of the house, but everywhere he looked there were people with sticks dueling it out. One of the beams of light missed him by about an inch and he was forced to throw himself back down on the ground. He saw one of the new arrivals knock out his opponent and make a B-line towards him. He swiftly leaped to his feet and looked around, settling on the nearest route of escape. He saw Link only a few feet away and grabbed his arm, taking the other boy with him on his mad dash towards the stairs. Link didn't question the move, he simply followed behind Lightning until they reached the stairs and then zigzagged up as fast as possible, knowing that they were completely vulnerable with their backs turned towards the enemy.

A red beam of light hit the banister just as they reached the top of the stairs, and they were both thrown off of their feet. Against his better judgment Lightning looked behind him to see if they were being followed, but the person who had broken away from the crowd earlier was now engaged in a fierce battle with one of the black robbed figures. Both groups seemed to be doing their best to make sure that the other group didn't get to him first, and Lightning wasn't sure which side he wanted to win. The original group had clearly wanted him dead, but the other group's agenda was unknown, and as far as he was concerned that made them just as dangerous. He did a quick check of the bodies that littered the floor and was glad that none of them were his friends. He noticed that his would-be killer was no longer where he had fallen, but he didn't have time to worry about it.

"Lightning! Come on!" Link had to yell to be heard over all the noise downstairs and Lightning turned to follow him. Out of the corner of his eye he saw another man appear in the middle of the room downstairs and had to fight the urge to turn back around. The man was only in his line of sight for a second, but three things about him immediately stood out in Lightning's mind; he wasn't wearing a mask, he had the longest beard Lightning had ever seen, and he looked more frightening in that moment than anyone Lightning had ever seen. He had to force himself not to turn back for a better look as he followed Link into the darkened hallway, and stored the image of the man in the back of his mind for later scrutiny.

"Tell me there's a way out from up here." He said to Link as he caught up to him. Coming upstairs had seemed like a good idea when they were standing in the middle of all that chaos but now that he was thinking more clearly he realized what a truly dumb move it had been. As far as he knew there was no way out of the house from up here and judging by Links lack of answer and strained look he didn't have any escape plans either.

"We need to get out of this hallway." Link told him, and turned to the nearest door. Lightning knew he was right and at any moment someone could come chasing after them, but he kept going straight anyway.

"Come on." He grabbed Links arm again without breaking stride and ran towards his own door. He didn't know why he thought being in his own room would make a difference but since Link didn't try to stop him that is where they ended up.

As soon as they were inside the room Link locked the door. Lightning repressed the urge to point out how futile that was, considering everybody downstairs seemed to know how to teleport. They both looked around the room for a possible route of escape, and Lightning felt like he was going to be sick when he realized what they were going to have to do. Link went over to the window and ripped open the curtains. After so many years of being closed it took their combined strength to push it open. Looking outside Lightning wasn't surprised to see one of the overgrown trees that surrounded the house was close enough to jump to. He pushed his fear aside.

"One good jump and you can make it to that tree over there." He told Link as they both pulled their heads back inside. Lightning heard footsteps in the hallway and looked over at the door. "You go first." he said determinedly.

For a minute Link looked like he was going to argue, but then thought better of it. He pulled himself out onto the window ledge hurriedly, and launched himself into the air without a hesitation. Lightning breathed a sigh of relief when Link reached the tree with a few inches to spare, and Lightning saw a few birds shoot up into the sky. He heard something in the hallway explode as the fighting continued into the hallway. He knew that he didn't have any time to waste, but he couldn't help turning to look around his bedroom for what would probably be the last time. It wasn't until his eyes landed on the bed that he realized what he had almost forgotten, and shot across the room. He ripped his mattress off the bed and saw the Silver watch lying exactly where he had left it. He stuffed it into his pocket along with all the cash that he had hidden and considered trying to take his emergency bag with him as well but decided against it. Speed and stealth were more important than any of the things that would slow him down in that bag.

He hurried back over to the window and crawled out onto the ledge. Link was already halfway to the ground and Lightning couldn't think of any more reasons to stall. So he swallowed his fear, took a deep breath, and jumped. For a moment he thought he was going to miss his mark, but a second later his breath was knocked out of him by the branch, and he somehow managed to grab on. On his way down he was sure that ever branch he touched was about to break, but he made it to the ground without any accidents. He silently made a promise to himself that he was _never_ doing that again, and then ran to catch up with Link, who was waiting for him near the corner of the house.

"What do you think?" Link asked quietly, without taking his eyes off of the overgrown front yard. Lightning saw the vine covered gates and scanned the yard, trying to pick up on any strange movements, but found himself at a complete loss. How did you see an enemy who could literally blend in to his surroundings or appear out of thin air?

"There's only one way to know for sure." Lightning answered. Link nodded and without another word they both burst around the corner and sprinted towards the gate. Link was only a few feet out when his foot caught on something in the grass, and he hit the ground. By the time he got back on his feet Lightning was already ten feet away and pulling further ahead by the second. Link raced after him, and was almost halfway to the gate when a sharp cracking sound made him skid to a stop. A black robed figure had appeared a few feet in front of him and Link saw him point his stick directly at Lightning's back. He didn't know what possessed him to do it, but before he could stop himself he went running towards the man and rammed into him, knocking them both to the ground and throwing the green ball of light completely off target.

Lightning threw himself to the ground when the ball of green light hit the bush next to him and spun around. He saw Link struggling with a masked man who had dropped his stick. He clearly didn't need it to take care of a thirteen year old boy though. Lightning saw Link trying to break the man's grip on his neck and knew that he would lose consciousness in a few seconds if the man didn't simply snap is neck. Lightning tried to push away thoughts of the gate that was only a few feet away as he raced back towards Link.

The man saw him coming, and let go of Link to reach for his abandoned stick, but Lightning hit him before he could use it. Link staggered to his feet the moment he felt the man's weight shift off of him and began running towards the gate. Lightning tried to follow, but a strong gloved hand on his ankle made him lose his balance. He tasted blood in his mouth when his face hit the concrete, and was momentarily dazed. Before he could get his bearings he felt strong hands flip him over onto his back and he saw the man taking aim directly at his chest. Lightning kicked him in the face before he could utter a word and then sent the stick flying out of his hand, which only served to enrage him more. He dragged Lightning closer and slammed him down by his throat. Lightning was sure that if he got out of this alive he would have a concussion of some kind but that seemed like a big _if_ right now.

He briefly caught a glimpse of Link standing at the gate and wondered if the other boy would come back to help him. He grabbed hold of the man's hand and tried to pry it away from his neck but his grip was unrelenting. Lightning could feel himself losing strength, but he kept trying to break lose squirming under the man's hand to no avail. It was only when he could no longer move that he looked up into the man's eyes and saw the familiar icy grey eyes staring back at him. The edges of his vision began to fade into darkness until he was sure that the cold grey eyes above him would be the last things he ever saw.

His brain barely registered the light that suddenly assaulted his eyes until he felt the hand around his throat loosen slightly and noticed that his killer was suddenly distracted by something else. _When you're killing someone you should at least give them your undivided attention_, He thought indignantly. He vaguely heard a woman's voice yelling something, and turned his head just in time to see Link disappearing into the night before he was blinded by a flash of red light. The grey eyed man took the blunt of the blow, and was thrown off of him, but Lightning felt the sting of it as well.

He could hear footsteps running towards him but his eyes had already given into the darkness that was slowly pulling him away. Just before he passed out completely he could swear he heard a woman's voice calling him by the name that no one had called him in a nearly a year..."Harry..."

* * *

**Review Replies:**

**KaiPhoenix:** Considering how filch turned out (bitter and a little insane), wiping a squibs memory and leaving them with a muggle family seems like the most humane thing a parent could do. It would be horrible to live so close to all that magic and never really be able to participate in. **The French Dark Lord: **I'm surprised you caught on to the Abraxas Malfoy thing (I had to look it up first). Malfoy killed The Rouge last chapter. I'm glad you're enjoying the story so much. **Allen Pitt: **If you go back to the first chapter you'll see why all of the DE's are trying to kill Harry. Whoever kills him gets to take over as Dark Lord. **LadyofDragons089: **I hope you were pleased with the change of pace this chapter. I might take you up on that Beta offer. **goldentree: **you always ask the best questions. Dumbledore will be showing up soon (He made an appearance in _this_ chapter if you were paying attention), but I'm not sure if he will play as big of a role as I originally thought. I might have to change the category. **Barranca:** there is a light at the end of this tunnel. you might see it getting a little closer...or maybe that's just a truck. ;) **AzNpRinCeSswaRrioR: **those are all excellent questions, and I wish that I could continue to tell the rest of the gangs story (their story get's a lot more interesting when you take Harry out of the picture) but unfortunately this is where they and Harry part ways. As much as I would love to continue to tell their story, this is still a Harry potter fic. **fhippogriff:** you got most of it right. I don't think Harry will be able to run though, considering that he's currently unconscious. I wonder what'll happen to him.** bill560682: **I don't think the story would be very interesting if Harry never entered the wizarding world. that's where all the fun stuff happens. It would be interesting to see finally see the American equivalent to Hogwarts (I imagine it would be a bit more modern), but this story will probably stay in the usual places. As far as the prophecy goes, I like it in theory, but the one in the books seemed completely unnecessary to me. If there is a prophecy in this story, I doubt that it'll be the same one that was made in the books. **Dragonrzice, Sushiz, itmethatu, bookworm3213: **Thank you all for the reviews.


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